Date: June 12, 2019
Source: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
When a
male or female white-browed sparrow-weaver begins its song, its partner joins
in at a certain time. They duet with each other by singing in turn and
precisely in tune. A team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for
Ornithology in Seewiesen used mobile transmitters to simultaneously record
neural and acoustic signals from pairs of birds singing duets in their natural
habitat. They found that the nerve cell activity in the brain of the singing
bird changes and synchronizes with its partner when the partner begins to sing.
The brains of both animals then essentially function as one, which leads to the
perfect duet.
White-browed
sparrow-weavers (Plocepasser mahali) live together in small groups in
trees in southern and eastern Africa. Each bird has a roosting nest with an
entrance and an exit. The dominant pair will have a breeding nest which is
easily recognisable by the fact that one passage is closed to prevent eggs from
falling out. In addition to the dominant pair, there are up to eight other
birds in the group that help build nests and raise the young. All group members
defend their territory against rival groups through duets of the dominant pair
and choruses together with the helpers.
White-browed
sparrow-weavers are one of the few bird species that sing in duet. It was
assumed that some cognitive coordination between individuals was required to
synchronise the syllables in the duet, however the underlying neuronal
mechanisms of such coordination were unknown.
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