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A 'Viral' New Bird Song in Canada Is Causing Sparrows to Change Their Tune
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.
Birds sing to mark their territories and attract prospective mates. Traditionally, white-throated sparrows in western and central Canada sing a song distinguished by its three-note ending. The new song, which likely started off as a regional dialect at some point between 1960 and 2000, features a distinctive two-note ending, and it's taking the sparrow community by storm. What makes the new ending so viral is a mystery to the study authors, led by Ken Otter from the University of Northern British Columbia.
"These songs are learned—otherwise new variants would not arise or spread," Otter told Gizmodo. "Where it started could have been a single bird, but it then gets learned by others, and they would form tutors for other birds. It wouldn't spread from a single bird."
The new song, which can now be heard from British Columbia through to central Ontario—a distance of over 1,900 miles (3,000 km)—spread between 2000 and 2019, according to the research. The old melody, with its highly musical triplet outro, is now at risk of going extinct.
Journal Reference:
Ken A. Otter. Continent-wide Shifts in Song Dialects of White-Throated Sparrows, Current Biology (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.084)
(Score: 1, Troll) by EJ on Tuesday July 07 2020, @09:18AM (18 children)
I could care less.
(Score: 1) by gmby on Tuesday July 07 2020, @09:52AM (8 children)
Maybe like Humans; the birds are getting more stupid and can only count to two now.
Bye
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday July 07 2020, @01:36PM (3 children)
It's the woodland birds that have changed their birdsong to "truck starting", and "chainsaw" that I feel most respect for - they must have learnt that for fun, as there was no way they could know they'd get a shag out of it at least initially.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @02:55PM (2 children)
there is the possibility that birds simply learn what they hear, not necessarily thinking of the consequences.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday July 07 2020, @10:03PM (1 child)
That may be true in some cases.
Where I live birds occupy the ecological niches that other animals take, because there are no native mammals, so these guys for instance [nzbirdsonline.org.nz] are super clever, and imitate everything they hear. They also teach new songs to each other.
This means that when you're sitting outside on a nice spring day, the phone will ring repeatedly, and no-one will be on the other end.
In fact a few years ago, Mrs PartTimeZombie changed her ringtone, because she was fed up with the little buggers, and they learnt her new one in a couple of days.
The article says "Birds rarely change their chirpy little tunes..." but what they should have written was "Some birds rarely change their chirpy little tunes..." because some birds are constantly learning new ones.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @10:59PM
The birds around here can definitely understand the alarm calls of the other birds and the squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs etc. I've seen my cat lose his prey many times because it was warned by a chipmunk or a bluejay sitting in a tree. My cat also attempts to mimic their calls, but he's not been very successful.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @03:00PM (3 children)
Like humans, language becomes more succinct. Instead of saying "please step out of my territory", a blunt "fuck off!" gets the point across with less complexity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @04:00PM (2 children)
Except they do excessive displays for mating. So they're not all about the simple either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @06:21PM (1 child)
The people you tell to "fuck off" usually aren't the ones you want to mate.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @08:40PM
Maybe for you. Don't kink shame.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Tuesday July 07 2020, @10:54AM (3 children)
Who will be the first to install speakers all over the Canadian wilderness and dominate mainstream bird melodies?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Opportunist on Tuesday July 07 2020, @12:30PM (1 child)
Well, at least birds don't have copyright lawyers who'd ensure that only ONE bird may sing a certain tune.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @03:08PM
https://thenextweb.com/google/2012/02/27/a-copyright-claim-on-chirping-birds-highlights-the-flaws-of-youtubes-automated-system/ [thenextweb.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @04:02PM
The Rush Limbaugh of the sparrow world...
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday July 07 2020, @02:25PM (4 children)
That's a poor attitude to have about such a highly important scientific issue.
All governments need to cooperate to create a United Nations fund to enable the massive recording of bird songs. This data set over time would enable AIs to learn what makes certain variations appealing to birds as evidenced by the spread of those song variations.
AIs could then manufacture new song variations which would become instant hits among bird populations. Encoding packets into these song variations be a true improvement for ISPs such as Comcast.
These song variations could be subtly introduced into Spotify to improve collective human intelligence. (With proper licensing of course.)
If humans could have the IQ of birds, even outside the US and UK, then imagine what a glorious world we could halve!
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @04:10PM
Shut up and watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR74FdWGtjo [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by EJ on Tuesday July 07 2020, @07:57PM (2 children)
I guess the point of my comment was lost on everyone. Bird song is like language. Humans are lazy, and screw up language by dropping syllables they don't understand or don't care about when they hear others do it.
"I couldN'T care less" is what you thought you read.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2020, @09:46PM (1 child)
Yes, but English:
(Score: 2) by EJ on Tuesday July 07 2020, @10:38PM
Exactly. The (N. Amer. informal also could) part is exactly what is similar with these bird calls. The N. Amer. birds don't give a damn about the right way to sing the song. They could[sic] care less about that third note.