Abstract
SummaryRecent findings have indicated that European starlings perceive overall spectral shape and use this, rather than absolute pitch or timbre, to generalize between similar melodic progressions. This finding highlights yet another parallel between human and avian vocal communication systems and has many biological implications.
Highlights
If you were to hear BTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Star^ on a piccolo or a tuba, the tune would still be immediately recognizable because the pitch intervals stay the same across renditions, despite the absolute pitch being transposed. This focus on relative pitch is present early in development and appears to be universal in musical cognition, yet a variety of studies have shown that this ability is not one of the many parallels shared by songbirds
Previous research has instead suggested that songbirds use absolute pitch in the auditory perception of melodic sequences
Learn Behav (2016) 44:305–306 from the training sequence. These results indicate that the melody was no longer recognizable to the birds after either absolute pitch or timbre had been manipulated, suggesting that neither of these cues alone is sufficient for auditory perception
Summary
Songbirds are famous for their intricate vocalizations, and like language, many bird songs must be learned. Songbirds have a specialized song-learning brain pathway, with particular nuclei dedicated to processing auditory information and integrating with the vocal production pathway. The production and learning of bird songs appear to converge with human language in many regards.
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