Tag Archives: songbirds

Tiny Fossils Uncover New Lineage of New Zealand Songbirds

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Paleontologists have unearthed a 2.9-centimeter fossil foot bone believed to belong to a bowerbird at the Miocene site of St Bassans in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Recreating the life of the St. Bassin’s bowerbird (Aeviperditus gracilis). Image credit: Sasha Votyakova / Te Papa / CC BY 4.0.

The newly identified species existed in New Zealand during the Miocene epoch, approximately 19 to 14 million years ago, well away from its close relatives in Australia and New Guinea.

“This finding offers significant and unique insight into the biological history of Aotearoa’s avian life,” stated Dr. Nick Lawrence, director of the Otago Institute of Paleogenetics.

“For many around the globe, bowerbirds gained fame from Sir David Attenborough’s documentaries featuring their intricate courtship rituals. Males construct arched structures called bowers, adorned with colorful items such as sticks and occasionally fruit, leaves, or even plastic, to attract a mate.”

Known as Aeviperditus gracilis or St. Bassin’s bowerbird, this new bird species was considerably smaller than its modern counterparts.

“It weighs only 33g, much lighter than both existing and extinct bowerbird species, which typically range from 96 to 265g,” Dr. Lawrence explained.

“Its leg bones closely resemble those of Avenue Bower builders, including the brightly colored Flame Bowerbird and Satin Bowerbird.”

“If this bird is indeed a relative of bowerbirds, it could represent an entirely new lineage of songbirds for Aotearoa,” suggested Dr. Elizabeth Steele, a researcher at the University of Cambridge.

“This is particularly crucial given our limited understanding of the region’s ancient songbird fossil record.”

“St Bathan’s Bowerbird signifies the latest lineage of songbirds with a long evolutionary history in Aotearoa, with the earliest representatives of groups like the Uia, Koukako, Tieke, Piopio, and Mohua found here.”

“All these species likely evolved rapidly and dispersed from Australia to New Zealand.”

“Like many of St. Bathans’ unique species, this bird has no surviving descendants in Aotearoa.”

“The bowerbird seems to have been particularly vulnerable to the cooling temperatures preceding the Ice Age and the resulting shifts in forest composition and distribution, contributing to its extinction,” Dr. Lawrence noted.

An article detailing the discovery of Aeviperditus gracilis was published on October 7, 2025, in Historical Biology, International Journal of Paleontology.

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Elizabeth M. Steele et al. Possible early Miocene bowerbirds of New Zealand. Historical Biology, published online October 7, 2025. doi: 10.1080/08912963.2025.2568099

Source: www.sci.news

The Secret Behind What Enchants the Dazzling Songbirds

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Green-headed Tanager (Tangara seledon): Remarkably Colorful

Daniel Field

The vibrantly hued songbird, referred to as Tanagers, captivates observers with a concealed layer of black or white beneath its vivid plumage.

Artists frequently layer white paint on canvas to amplify the colors applied atop, enhancing their vibrancy. Surprisingly, this appears to be a technique utilized by birds long before humans wielded brushes.

Rosalyn Price-Waldman from Princeton University and her team uncovered this phenomenon in a Tanager species, Tangara, which boasts striking red or yellow feathers, typically concealed beneath a layer of white. Conversely, those adorned with blue feathers possess a black underlayer.

To delve deeper, they extracted 72 feathers from mounted Tanagers at the Natural History Museum in the Los Angeles County Collection.

The researchers photographed the feathers against various backgrounds, measuring changes in light reflection or absorption, ultimately revealing that the underlying layer enhanced the color of the top layer.

Red and yellow hues are produced by pigments that selectively absorb light, which enhances the brightness of backscattered light from the white layer underneath, according to Price-Waldman.

In contrast, blue feathers derive their color from nanostructures within the feathers, which scatter light rather than absorb it. Thus, the black underlayer intensifies the blue hues. “Without a white layer beneath, blue feathers appear grey,” explains Price-Waldman.

The intricate effects of feather coloration arise from their layered structure, resembling tiled roofs. When assessing a single feather, one might find a vibrant tip, a middle section that is either black or white, and a fluffy base. When these feathers are layered on a bird’s body, the tips create adjacent layers of color over either white or black underneath.

Blue Feathers in the Crown of a Red-necked Tanager (Tangara cyanocephala): Enhanced by an Underlying Layer of Black Feathers

Rosalyn Price-Waldman, Allison Schultz

Price-Waldman and her team also discovered that these feather layers can create noticeable color variations between males and females.

“We’ve found instances where females have black beneath yellow and males have white beneath yellow,” she reports. “When placed against the same backdrop, they appear quite alike until the male and female feathers are displayed against a black background, revealing a marked difference in color.”

This color-enhancing strategy has been observed in numerous other songbirds, including manakins and cotingas.

“Substantial research has been conducted to understand how birds produce such stunning colors, yet much remains to be explored,” explains Chris Cooney from the University of Sheffield, UK. “It seems that this ‘hidden’ method for intensifying feather color may indeed be widespread across various bird species.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The impact of daily songs on the appeal of songbirds

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Every Christmas season, it becomes clear once again that there are amazingly accomplished singers like Mariah Carey and George Michael. Their songs stir strong emotions. Singing involves perhaps the most complex and mostly hidden movements that humans and animals can perform. To become a good singer, you need to learn how to coordinate the movements of hundreds of muscles in your body with great precision. Therefore, it requires a lot of talent and practice.

Voice box training: unexplored territory We all know that athletes spend a lot of time exercising their limbs and body muscles, but why not try training your voice box muscles? “Surprisingly, little is known about the effects of exercise on these muscles or whether they respond to training in humans,” said Professor Koen Elemans of the University of Southern Denmark, an expert in sound production. says. Close to their precious voice box.

This study found that male songbirds require daily singing practice to improve vocal muscle health and song quality. This is an important factor in attracting mates and maintaining social bonds.

Insights from Songbirds

New research published today (December 12th) in a prestigious journal nature communications Male songbirds report that they need to sing daily to strengthen their vocal muscles and produce beautiful songs. And if the female didn’t notice, she notices. “Singing is extremely important for songbirds. They sing to impress potential partners, protect their territory, and maintain social bonds,” said Iris, lead author of the study. Dr. Adam says.

Researchers have shown that songbirds’ vocal muscles require training to keep them at peak performance. And it’s not just training; what’s especially important is singing practice. The study was carried out by an international team of researchers from the University of Southern Denmark, Leiden University, Umeå University and the University of Vermont, and led by Assistant Professor Iris Adam and Professor Koen Elemans from the Department of Biology at the University of Southern Denmark. .

Vocal muscles also need exercise
“It has long been known that songbird calls are controlled by fast vocal muscles, but it remains to be seen whether and how these muscles respond to exercise, similar to leg muscles. “Until now, we knew very little about it,” says Iris Adam. In their study, the researchers showed that when songbirds don’t use their vocal muscles at all, their voices become significantly slower and weaker within a few days. But even if the bird only made a mumble, after seven days the vocal muscles had already lost 50% of their power.

Therefore, in order for songbirds to remain attractive, they may need to invest a lot of time and energy into singing every day.

Unique features of the vocal muscles While studying the vocal muscles of zebra finches, the research team made another very important discovery. “When we go to the gym to work out our leg and arm muscles, we typically slow down our movements,” said study author Pell Stoll, an expert in human muscle exercise physiology. To tell. But songbird vocal muscles, like the muscles in their limbs, don’t get stronger or slower with exercise, they get weaker and faster. This is the opposite of normal limb and body muscles. “We think this reverse training may be unique to the vocal muscles and may be true for everyone.” vertebrateBecause all vocal muscles are developmentally related, ”says Iris Adam.

Source: scitechdaily.com