Birds Do Not Sing

Birds sounds have represented an inspiration for poets and musicians for centuries, but the harsh reality is that these creatures simply cannot sing. A new investigation demonstrates that any resemblance to human music is purely coincidental.

The study is based on a statistical analysis of the frequency intervals between the sounds birds make while they sing. Researchers focused their attention on the nightingale wren, a species renowned for its beautiful sounds, ScienceNow reports.

For starters, birdsong notes do not follow the same organizational rules as human-made music. A stable relationships between notes is one of the most important aspects of music in general. In the study, scientists from the New Mexico State University, found only 6 harmonic intervals in 243 comparisons.

The idea that birds do sing may have entered mainstream acceptance due to our innate tendency to match patterns and create mental associations. The same thing happens when hearing a new language spoken for the first time.