Back to main Discovery page

Bird Banter

Birds communicate by songs and calls or other noises, like tapping and drumming. Courtship flights and dances are other ways birds communicate. Songs are specific patterns of notes repeated with few variations. Songs are used to attract mates and mark the territory necessary to raise young. Each species has its own specific song or songs. Some birds are able to mimic the songs of other birds (starling). Some birds are born knowing how to sing. Others must listen to calls of adult birds of their kind and practice the calls before perfecting them.

When alerting others of danger, birds call. Calls are also made when feeding or migrating. Independent young communicate with their parents through a location call. When a covey of partridge is split up, they locate each other and rejoin the group through a gathering call. Birds do not have vocal cords.

To produce sounds, vibrations are sent across the syrinx (voice box) of a bird. The more muscles a bird has attached to the syrinx, the more sounds it can make. For instance, wrens have many muscles and can produce a variety of sounds, while pigeons have a single pair of muscles, which results in only the single "coo" sound.

Communication is very important to birds. Without communication, many birds would starve, lose their way during migration, and be unable to defend a territory or find a mate.

Blackbird