This could hint at two evolutionary strategies:
🐢 one favoring rhythmic precision and consistency,
🦜 the other favoring novelty and flexibility.
So now we’d love to test whether female finches prefer rhythmic accuracy or creativity — does rhythm consistency matter for attractiveness? 🎧🐦
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We also found intriguing differences between tutees:
🎶 Those who copied all elements of a motif sang slower, more consistent rhythms.
🎶 Those who improvised more in terms of element sequence showed faster, less consistent rhythms.
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So, what’s happening?
It seems the shared rhythm goes beyond copying individual notes. Tutees might adjust the timing of new, improvised parts so the entire motif still matches their tutor’s rhythm.
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Turns out they do — but with a twist🥨.
Tutees’ overall rhythms were most similar to their own tutors’, only when considering the full motif.
When we looked at just the shared or non-shared elements, those rhythms diverged.
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Young zebra finches are known to copy their tutors’ songs — but do they also copy rhythm? 🐦🎶
We analyzed how 37 young males matched the rhythmic structure of their 17 tutors’ songs, focusing on Inter-Onset-Intervalls between elements of song motifs.
👉 doi.org/10.1038/s415...
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