A new study on bird “playlists” is making me feel very connected to male song sparrows.
The North American songbirds are known for their chipper and enthusiastic vocal exercises.
The males use songs to attract females, and they put a lot of effort into the crooning.
Remarkably, they can also track the order and frequency of their songs for up to 30 minutes.
The group published astudy on the topic in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journalon Wednesday.
The study involved a whole lot of field work recording song sparrows in Pennsylvania for hours at a time.
Birds in the news
The researchers found notable patterns in the bird songs.
If the song was only repeated a few times, then it would pop back into the playlist sooner.
The team describes this as “an extremely rare talent” called “long-distance dependencies.”
That’s an impressive time span to cover.
Might work for humans, too.
