A team led by a Brown biologist discovered that the same specialized brain area that helps songbirds learn their songs also exists in woodpeckers, suggesting that the communicative drumming evolved in a similar way.
A team led by a Brown biologist discovered that the same specialized brain area that helps songbirds learn their songs also exists in woodpeckers, suggesting that the communicative drumming evolved in a similar way.
While a woodpecker’s bill-hammering is a familiar sound — and sometimes too familiar, for those who’ve had a woodpecker take up residence in their yard — the mechanisms and motivations driving the birds to engage in this behavior haven’t been well understood.
Until now.
A team of researchers led by a Brown University biologist has discovered new insights into how the woodpecker’s brain works. The discovery suggests their drums may have evolved through vocal learning, which is the same way that songbirds learn to make their own more melodious sounds.
Read more at Brown University
Photo Credit: ginger via Pixabay
