To get baby to sleep, we often put our best singing to the forefront. Honest one Sleeping baby sleepingMake sure your eyes are closed. But this is nothing compared to the achievements of Australian songbirds. The song of their chicks still in the egg also has a more important purpose.
The Australian wren, with the lovely name “Ornate Fairy,” sings to her eggs at the top of her lungs. Of course not to make them sleep, as they are still in the egg, but to teach them a unique call for food. This also gives them a better bond with their mother and makes them more prepared for life in the real world.
The special begging call of the ornamental fairy
Because the beautiful fairy already sings to the young while they are in the egg, they respond more positively to their mother’s specific song after birth, according to avian ecologists among others. University of Vienna in Flinders University In Adelaide, Australia In their new study.
Private personal call to Malarus cyaneusOfficially called the posh fairy, the unborn chick appears to learn the unique sound of its family while still in the egg, says Professor Sonja Kleindorfer from Flinders. “In eight species of the great fairy as well as subspecies of the brown grasscreeper, females produce a specific sound to their embryos that indicates they are the mother and this is unique to each female. This element is also the begging call of the young when they have just hatched from the egg,” says Professor Kleindorfer. “In this study, we show that songbirds produce a unique sound that chicks later use as a begging call.” The begging call is the familiar squeak of hungry chicks.
Singing slower works better
It is also important how the mother bird sings to her chicks. “The chicks make a sound similar to their mother’s voice if their mother sings to them slowly while they are still in the egg,” explains the bird ecologist. It seems logical: if you explain something more slowly, it will stick better.
According to researchers, it has long been overlooked just how special Jan’s song was. Their new study provides more knowledge about singing behavior and its effect on chicks. “The pleading calls are very similar to the distinctive maternal sound when mothers sing slowly to their fetuses,” says co-researcher Dr. Diane Colombelli Negril. “In this study we show that mother birds teach their young to make the same sound by singing to them while they are still in the egg. Mothers who sang slowly had offspring that were better able to imitate the sound of the song they heard while in the egg.
But the mothers didn’t make just one sound for their fetuses. In a new study, researchers explain why this happens: so that young birds do not get used to that one note and so the sound remains unique enough.
Royal Fairy
Ornamental fairy Maloros is heavenly It is found mainly in eastern and south-eastern Australia, but was first discovered in Tasmania, where a subspecies still lives. The bird is only 14 centimeters long, and the tail is 5.9 centimeters long, which is relatively short for a bird of the fairy family. During the breeding season, the male has strikingly beautiful blue plumage. But then it turns brown again, just like the females. The bird loves tall grass, not dense bushes.
