Stories tagged birds
A white-throated sparrow: Is its tweeting music to the ears other birds?Courtesy Dave Govoni (Va bene!)Is birdsong music? Does the tweeting and chirping of our feathered friends elicit the same emotional response in them as one of Chopin’s nocturnes does in us? Do they serve the same purpose? These are questions that have long been argued in scientific circles and elsewhere.
A new study published recently in Frontiers of Evolutionary Neuroscience shows some interesting results in how birds perceive birdsong.
Researcher Sarah Earp and neuroscientist Donna Maney, both of Emory University looked at brain imaging data gathered from studies of human neural responses to music and compared them with similar data from birdsong studies.
Some of the white-throated sparrows were given a boost of hormones (testosterone and estradiol) that made them all a-twitter and ready for love. When a male sparrow stepped up to the microphone and started serenading, the females showed a definite response.
“We found that the same neural reward system is activated in female birds in the breeding state that are listening to male birdsong, and in people listening to music that they like,” said Sarah Earp.
But what was music to the ears of the female sparrows was perceived by their male counterparts as discordant (and probably very annoying) noise from a rival suitor. An awkward third-wheel sort of deal, I suppose.
“Birdsong is a signal,” said Maney. “And the definition of a signal is that it elicits a response in the receiver. Previous studies hadn’t approached the question from that angle, and it’s an important one.”
The females in the sample group showed increased activity in the same region of their bird brains that humans display in their corresponding region when hearing a piece of music they enjoy. The response of the control group females - those not in a breeding state and without any hormonal boost - showed little response to song. Male sparrows treated with testosterone showed an amygdala response not unlike how the human brain responds to scary movie music.*
The brain’s mesolimbic reward pathway has counterparts in both humans and birds. In humans it lies beneath the cerebrum and is involved in emotions, memory, and olfaction. A neurotransmitter called dopamine is produced within the brain’s limbic system and spreads along the limbic pathways to help regulate the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. The chemical messenger also governs movement and emotions.
The study shows that not only does birdsong and music produce similar responses in corresponding brain regions linked to reward but also in areas thought to regulate emotions. And the response also seems to connected to social context in both birds and humans.
“Both birdsong and music elicit responses not only in brain regions associated directly with reward, but also in interconnected regions that are thought to regulate emotion,” Earp said. “That suggests that they both may activate evolutionarily ancient mechanisms that are necessary for reproduction and survival.”
LINKS
Emory University story
Frontiers of Evolutionary Neuroscience
More about dopamine
The intelligence of birds
*Rather than scary, I find composer Bernard Herrmann’s musical score used in Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO very compelling – not sure what that response means. But it’s interesting to note that Herrmann’s music in the movie was also a big influence on record producer George Martin’s string arrangement for the Beatles’ melancholy ballad ELEANOR RIGBY.
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Drawn to birds: A little time and effort can lead to some new understanding and nice sketches of our feathered friends.Courtesy John Muir LawsToday is the kick-off of an eight-week effort that encourages us all to get to know our feathered friends a little bit better.
Feeder Watch: Sketch runs until January 20. You're welcome to flutter down into the project any time you'd like and "feed" as much or as little on it as you desire.
It's a simple concept with just one requirement – having access to an active bird feeder. Each day you watch the birds at the feeder, you're encouraged to sketch what you're seeing. The project also ties into Project Feeder Watch, which asks people to count and report the various types of birds they see at their feeders each day.
Why spend your time sketching birds? Sketching allows us to look at the world more closely and learn to observe details quickly and accurately. The project hopes to be a marriage between avid birders who might not have the most highly-developed sketching skills with artists who might not know much about birds.
Participants can share their thoughts at an online discussion site to learn from others. The entire Feeder Watch: Sketch run has been divided into four two-week blocks that will have specific themes for participants to dig into. Sketchers are also encouraged to take photos of their efforts to share online with others and participate in contests.
Not quite sure how to get started? Here are some beginner sketching tips from the John Muir Laws website.
Okay, so get out there and load up the bird feeder, sharpen those pencils and start sketching!!! It's bound to be a happier experience than playing Angry Birds one more time! And check back at Science Buzz as we update progress on the project.
Canadians announce first feathered dinosaur fossils found in Western Hemisphere
Paleontologists from the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology have announced the discovery of the first ever evidence of feathered dinosaurs discovered in the Western Hemisphere. Until now, all previous feathered dinosaur evidence has come from fine silt lagoon and lake deposits found in Germany and China. The remarkable Canadian fossils come from 75 million year-old river deposits found in the badlands of Alberta. The feathered remains belong to a type of dinosaur known as ornithomimid, or bird-mimic (apropos - yes?). News of the discovery is reported at the online journal Phys.org.
Still image from a video of a Common Raven stripping fur off of a coyote.Courtesy Twin Cities NaturalistA motion activated camera captured remarkable still images in Northern Washington County, Minnesota this week. The camera was set up on a dead coyote in hopes of discovering what scavengers would come eat. Raccoons and crows were not unexpected but it was exciting when Common Ravens showed up on the photos.
Northern Washington County is right on the edge of the breeding range of Ravens and simply seeing them during breeding season is an exciting sign they may be breeding. The photos went even further than simply showing the ravens were present however. What the series of photos which were complied into a video clearly show is a raven stripping the fur from the coyote and then carrying it away. Ravens are known to line their nests with animal fur so this is a clear indication these birds are nesting.
Information like this helps scientists build range maps of where birds breed. Many states are building breeding bird atlases with the help of citizen scientists who study bird behavior. Currently Minnesota, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia have active atlas efforts. Find out more and learn how to take part at http://bird.atlasing.org/
I had no idea until I watched this amazing video made by Liberty Smith and Sophie Windsor Clive while canoeing on the River Shannon in Ireland. More info on Irish Central.
Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.
Twin Cities NaturalistCourtesy Twin Cities NaturalistCheck out this week's Phenology Roundup where professional naturalist Kirk Mona of Twin Cities Naturalist discusses what's been seen around the Twin Cities area in the last week. Phenology is the science of the seasons. It looks at how and when nature changes according to seasonal climatic conditions.
View a summary of phenology sightings in the Twin Cities this past week.
Twin Cities NaturalistCourtesy Twin Cities NaturalistCheck out this week's Phenology Roundup where professional naturalist Kirk Mona of Twin Cities Naturalist discusses what's been seen around the Twin Cities area in the last week. Phenology is the science of the seasons. It looks at how and when nature changes according to seasonal climatic conditions.
View a summary of phenology sightings in the Twin Cities this past week.
Japanese White-eye: Snails have been shown to survive the trip through the bird's digestive tract.Courtesy Wikimedia CommonsBirds are known to spread plant seeds by eating them and dispersing them in their droppings. But scientists in Japan have found that some species of snails can also survive the trip through the avian digestive tract. Researchers at Tohoku University discovered that about 15 percent of the tiny snails (Tornatellides boeningi) eaten by the Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonicus) survived the trip through the birds gut and were dispersed in its droppings. If this can happen within an island ecology, it probably means snails and other invertebrates could be dispersed over longer distances and from one island to another or from one isolated region to another. It certainly raises new questions of species radiation. The study was done on the island of Hahajima, located 600 miles south of Tokyo, and in the lab, and the findings published in the Journal of Biogeography. (In researching this I came across this related study done by T. D. A. Cockerell 90 years ago!)
SOURCE
BBC Nature
Check out the live streaming video of a bald eagle's nest in Decorah, Iowa courtesy the Raptor Resource Project. When I was watching it earlier it was windy and one of the parental eagles was trying its best to shield the three chicks and make them comfortable. At night, the camera watches the nest in infrared light so the stream is live around the clock. The site includes a chat room (open from 8am to 8pm) and also links to archived footage of the eggs hatching in early April.
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