Putting muscle into birdsong: Wide range of pitch is due to vocal muscles more than air pressure
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - 16:21
in Biology & Nature
Female zebra finches don't sing but make one-note, low-pitch calls. Males sing over a wide range of frequencies. University of Utah scientists discovered how: The males' stronger vocal muscles, not the pressure of air flowing through their lungs, lets them sing from the B note above middle C all the way to a whistle beyond the high end of a piano keyboard.