Avian choristers have long inspired listeners from all walks of life. It seems fair to ask if birdsong is simply a hard-wired, functional, primitive sound – or could we call it “music”?
Both sexes of pied butcherbirds participate in daytime group singing. However, their solo songs are principally nocturnal and may last as long as seven hours. Each adult soloist sings partially or even completely differently from another, and solo songs transform each year.
Intriguingly, these songsters share many musical sounds and behaviours with human musicians, including approaches to repetition and variation, and shape and balance. Pied butcherbirds are not unique. We also find overlaps with our sense of musicality in the vocalisations of species like nightingales, European blackbirds, and humpback whales.