Parrots sing a musical melody in unison

It is thought amongst aviculturists that cockatiels imitate human music with their whistle-like vocal sounds. Yoshimasa Seki, a professor of Psychology Department of Aichi University, examined whether or not cockatiels are additionally in a position to sing in unison, or, line up their vocalizations with a musical melody in order that they happen on the identical time.

Three hand-raised cockatiels had been uncovered to a musical melody of human whistling produced by Dr. Seki. All the birds realized to sing the melody. Then, two out of those three birds spontaneously joined in singing throughout an ongoing melody, in order that the singing by every one of many birds and the whistling by the human had been practically completely synchronous.

Then, Dr. Seki started two experiments utilizing a playback of the melody of the whistling to look at whether or not the birds actively adjusted their vocal timing to the melody. First, A playback sequence was introduced after a chicken began singing. The melody was composed of the 2 elements; the primary half and the second half separated by a protracted pause. Thus, the birds modified the pause length of their very own track to synchronize the vocal timing with the melody of the playback; when the latency of the playback was longer, the pause of the singing was longer. Second, a playback sequence was introduced when a chicken was not singing to watch whether or not the chicken begins to sing following the playback, and the way he modulates his vocal timing to synchronize with the playback of the melody. One of the birds joined within the singing from the center of the melody by skipping a number of preliminary notes to synchronize his vocal timing with the playback. The lack of the preliminary notes was by no means noticed when the chicken sang songs spontaneously throughout the experimental interval; the chicken at all times started singing from the start of the melody.

The outcomes reveal that the birds actively regulate their vocal timing to playback of a recording of the identical melody. This means cockatiels have a outstanding skill for versatile vocal management, just like that noticed in human singing.

Provided by
Aichi University