19. Memories of birds and human listeners.
3. Why and How Birds Sing
Singing in the brain
From page 37 in the book.
Memories of birds and human listeners. Test both your memory and that of a singing bird. Find a thrasher (or a relative, such as a catbird or mockingbird) who sings endlessly, and listen to him until you hear a sound so distinct that you will be sure to recognize it when he sings it again. Then begin your Big Listen. Start your stopwatch, or count the number of songs until you hear your chosen song again, or do both. How long did it take him to return to your chosen song? How many other songs did he sing in the meantime? Or, in case you can't get out to find your own singing bird, use the long recordings I provide for a number of species, such as the red-eyed vireo (p. 98), gray catbird (p. 49), brown thrasher (p. 92), northern mockingbird (p. 73), sage thrasher (p. 83), and western meadowlark (p.150).