Saturday, July 4, 2020

Sparrows have Fads

Birds rarely change their chirpy little tunes, and when they do, it’s typically limited to the local environment, where slight song variants basically become regional dialects. New research published today in Current Biology describes an extraordinary exception to this rule, in which a novel song sung by white-throated sparrows is spreading across Canada at an unprecedented rate. What’s more, the new song appears to be replacing the pre-existing melody, which dates as far back as the 1960s.
You can hear the old and new songs at the link.

4 comments:

  1. I have many more birds this year than last. Lots of nests and babies. The dawn chorus is Loud!

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  2. Fr. Michael KavanaughJuly 5, 2020 at 10:14 AM

    I heard the story reported on NPR - pretty amazing.

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