Cardinal Rule: Female Birds Sing Too

[Judi Lynn]

By Sarah Witman on June 25, 2018



Many people assume only male birds do the singing. But females also sing in at least 660 species and perhaps many more.

Full Transcript
[Bird singing] That’s a female Northern Cardinal. And here’s a female Venezuelan Troupial [bird singing].

Many people assume that male songbirds are the ones doing the crooning. But more than 660 species of songbirds are known in which the females sing as well. And there are still 3,500 species of songbird in which the female singing status is unknown. Which implies that there could be plenty more female singers to be found.

“We often talk to people, both people who are scientists and ornithologists but also people who are birders and citizen scientists, who say, ‘Yeah you know, I have this story where a female was clearly singing.’”

More:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/cardinal-rule-female-birds-sing-too/