18. Bird brains and special song control neurons.
3. Why and How Birds Sing
Singing in the brain
From page 36 in the book.
Bird brains and special song control neurons. Beginning on book page 170, look over the "Who's Who" list of birds. Drop down to the Order Passeriformes. In the family Tyrannidae, which in North America are all flycatchers, realize that there are no special song learning centers in the brain, and songs of all flycatchers in this group are believed to be innate. Next in the list are the shrikes (Laniidae), vireos (Vireonidae), all the way through to the cardinals and their relatives (Cardinalidae); these are all the true songbirds, the oscines, all of which have the special brain centers. As you listen to birds, note the relative complexity of their singing efforts, and try to appreciate those differences in the context of the neural substrates for singing in the brain.