CANARIES warble in much the same way that opera singers belt out an aria, a
simple physical model of the birds’ singing technique has shown. This might mean
they can produce intricate songs with very little input from the brain.
Most animals can produce a full repertoire of sounds right from birth, but
songbirds have to learn from scratch. Just as human infants learn to master
language, the birds acquire complex songs from those around them. Canaries
raised in isolation make an unpleasant rasping sound.
Marcelo Magnasco, Tim Gardner and colleagues at Rockefeller University in New
York and the University…
