Birds that burble, cluck and coo.

May 1, 2007 9:01 PM

What is the physiology of bird sounds?

I notice the quails make a sound like a cluck, but it is really more of a burble. In fact it sounds exactly like my fridge, which I think is circulating some water that results from the frost-free mechanism, but now it's driving me nuts: what is the physiology of quail clucks? It's different from how chickens cluck and also from doves coo. It's too much to hope for a bird AND fridge expert in one, but how about some bird experts?

posted by Listener to science & nature (7 comments total)

I'm not sure if this is the type of info you're looking for:

(from http://www.mentalfloss.com/trivia/facts/2006/11/)


Why do some birds tweet, while others sing, some quack, and the ones outside your bedroom window caw loudly at 5 a.m.?

A bird’s “voice” comes from the syrinx, which is the avian version of the human voice box. The syrinx contains membranes that vibrate when air from the bird’s lungs are passed over them. While the human larynx is positioned high in the throat, however, birds’ syringes (that’s the plural of syrinx) are located down closer to the chest, where the bronchial tubes branch off into each lung. That means that the syrinx has two sources of sound, one from each bronchus, which gives birds a wider range of vocal sounds than humans.

However, even in the bird kingdom, life is not fair. The melodiousness and versatility of a bird’s voice is a product of evolution – the more and higher-developed muscles a bird has around its syrinx, the sweeter the song. Birds that don’t have to rely on conversing with others to find a food source, like ostriches and vultures, have no syringeal muscles. Ducks spend their days paddling around lakes and waddling along the shore, in clear view of one another, so they don’t need elaborate songs to attract a mate. A simple “quack!” and the shake of a tail feather is sufficient.

Birds that spend most of their time in trees need voices that carry, as all those leaves act as sound dampeners. And they also need distinctive sounds, so that sparrows can communicate with other sparrows, etc. As a result, songbirds have from five to nine pairs of muscles around their syringes, squeezing out their melodic tunes.
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:40 PM on May 1, 2007 [3 favorites]

I don't know the physiology, but I know they have territorial accents. The quail at my house have a different ah-HAH-ha from the quail down the road. They make the refrigerator sound when excited, and also when bedding down for the night inside my juniper hedge, to let the others flying in know which spots are taken.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:37 PM on May 1, 2007

Oriole Adams doesn't mention another evolutionary pressure which leads to complex songs: countermeasures.

The primary function of bird songs is establishment of territories. It makes the birds spread themselves out evenly during nesting so that they all have enough hunting territory to keep themselves, and their chicks, fed.

But different species sometimes compete for the same food, and since their songs are different they ignore one another in setting up territory.

Enter the mockingbird. Mockingbirds are extraordinary. They remember any bird song they hear and can reproduce it. When a mockingbird sings, it runs through an amazingly long sequence of different songs, repeating each one usually three times before moving on to the next. What that does is to make it sound like a member of other species for terms of laying out territory, because it sounds like a robin, and like a wren, and like a chickadee, and so on. And that means a mockingbird can establish a territory where it doesn't have to compete with the likes of chickadees, wrens, robins, and other such riffraff.

However, a mockingbird doesn't sound like a lark. It can't, even if it hears one sing. The mockingbird can only repeat short songs. The long and elaborate song of a lark is too much for it. It may try to reproduce the first part, but that won't fool larks, who will ignore it for purposes of establishing territory.

That's why some species of birds have such elaborate songs: it's so that they aren't deceived by mockingbirds.

[Mockingbirds really are amazing to listen to. One time I heard one reproduce the sound of a school fire alarm klaxon, except without the bass.]
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:20 PM on May 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm aware of the syrinx, but not whether the quail's burble comes from there and why does it sound so liquid? Starlings make a somewhat burbly sound, but I can hear individual swirling notes in it. The quail one sounds more like a blip of water bubbling through. That's the one that puzzles me. The others I assume are indeed throat (syrinx) sounds. Sorry if I have engendered a chat here. Didn't mean to. Was intending to provide context.
posted by Listener at 11:26 PM on May 1, 2007

[I don't actually know what the song of a wren sounds like and don't know whether a mockingbird can imitate it. I was just pulling bird species out of my ear for explanatory purposes.]
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:27 PM on May 1, 2007

You guys are forgetting the most interesting case of all... the parrot. I think it's just amazing that parrots have the ability to make human mouth-sounds with a hard beak (the counting is icing on the cake). Anyway, apparently they only have one syrinx and an enormous and agile tongue, which is pretty close to the set up we (humans) have. Eye of the octopus and all that, eh?
posted by anaelith at 2:39 AM on May 2, 2007

Parrots are just pretenders to the throne of the lyrebird.

I'm thinking that if a lyrebird can make all of these sounds, then a quail can make a burbling sound without a unique anatomy.
posted by treepour at 8:00 AM on May 2, 2007