In this section
@article{James:2026:10.1126/science.adr9983,
author = {James, LS and Oudyk, K and Pescaru, MI and Wall, EM and Chen, Y and Pearse, WD and Sakata, JT},
doi = {10.1126/science.adr9983},
journal = {Science},
pages = {556--561},
title = {Pervasive patterns in bird songs resemble those in human speech and song and are independent of vocal learning.},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adr9983},
volume = {394},
year = {2026}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - Bird songs are often described as analogs to human speech and songs, but expansive comparisons are necessary to determine analogy and mechanistic substrates. By analyzing global corpora consisting of 367 bird species (>74,500 vocal elements from ~5900 songs) within two clades of vocal learners (oscines and hummingbirds) and related nonlearners (suboscines and nightjars) and 52 human languages (>15,000 elements in >800 speech or song phrases), we revealed common patterns in bird songs that resemble prevalent patterns in human speech and song with variation in resemblance to speech or song. Vocal learning did not systematically affect acoustic patterning or similarity to human vocalizations. These data underscore the deep analogies between bird and human vocalizations and convergent motor mechanisms shaping communication.
AU - James,LS
AU - Oudyk,K
AU - Pescaru,MI
AU - Wall,EM
AU - Chen,Y
AU - Pearse,WD
AU - Sakata,JT
DO - 10.1126/science.adr9983
EP - 561
PY - 2026///
SP - 556
TI - Pervasive patterns in bird songs resemble those in human speech and song and are independent of vocal learning.
T2 - Science
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adr9983
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/42956123
VL - 394
ER -
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