Did you know that song sparrows select their ‘playlist’ to make their girl fall in love and not bore her?

Researchers have discovered that song sparrows select songs from their repertoire in a complex way, tracking how long and how often they sing their songs. That way they try not to repeat the same songs.

Song Sparrows are known for their cheerful songs. The females are seduced by its beautiful melodies. And to achieve their goal, the males can track the order and frequency of their songs for up to 30 minutes .

The memory capacity of sparrows is incredible, unlike canaries, which held the previous record, and can only retain information for 5 seconds.

During courtship, sparrows make up to 12 different two-second calls, a repertoire that can last nearly 30 minutes . Once they repeat their trill they go on to the next list of songs.

They not only vary the number of repetitions, they also change the order of the chants.

The researchers found that the birds offered their entire repertoire before ‘playing’ the same song. They noticed that the more a particular sound is played, the longer it takes them to use the same sound again, perhaps to cause surprise when they hear it again.

Males are thought to change the order of their repertoire to increase their chances of landing a mate.

What do you think?

[ cnet ]