Why Do Songbird Sing?

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Why do songbirds sing at all? For the answers, you need to look at both heredity and experience. The songs a bird sings are usually distinctive to its species. Scientists believe a bird is born with a "neurological model" of what its song should sound like. The baby bird learns that song by matching the sounds it hears from its father and male neighbors. Scientists call this theory the auditory template hypothesis.

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Why do songbirds sing at all? For the answers, you need to look at both heredity and experience. The songs a bird sings are usually distinctive to its species. Scientists believe a bird is born with a "neurological model" of what its song should sound like. The baby bird learns that song by matching the sounds it hears from its father and male neighbors. Scientists call this theory the auditory template hypothesis.

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