Female birds sing!

By Macaulay Library Team
Maybe this is a female? House Wren Troglodytes aedon © Kathleen Kent ML 70463681

Did you know that female birds sing? They do!

Females sing in 64% of birds species in which the male sings, but numbers grow as more are observed and reported. Often, it is monomorphic species– where males and females look the same– where female song is unreported, or assumed to be the male.

Macaulay Library post-doctoral fellow, Karan Odom, is asking for your help collecting recordings and observations. Dr. Odom and her colleagues are researching why females sing and how song has evolved. To study this, they use the observations and audio recordings in public collections, like Macaulay Library, but they need more.

Help us spread the word! Share your observations and recordings in eBird for Macaulay Library and check out http://femalebirdsong.org/ for more information on female bird song.

Read an article from the Washington Post about Dr. Odom’s research, and her latest article in The Auk, with her co-author, Dr. Lauryn Benedict.

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