Sparrow Song Undergoes Key Change
Science Quickly
Scientific American
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 July 2020
⏱️ 4 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Hi folks, Darren Snow here. |
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| 0:40.0 | This is Scientific American 60 Second Science. I'm Suzanne Bard. |
| 0:41.0 | Like many birds, male white-throated sparrows |
| 0:45.1 | belt out songs to defend their territories |
| 0:47.7 | and attract mates. |
| 0:49.4 | And until the year 2000, one particular song stood out as the most popular white throat tune in forests |
| 0:56.4 | across Canada. |
| 0:57.4 | The end part of the song is a three-syllable repeat. That's supposed to sound like, |
| 1:05.8 | Oh my sweet Canada, Canada, Canada. |
| 1:08.8 | University of Northern British Columbia, behavioral ecologist Ken Otter. |
| 1:13.4 | And if you look in most books that describe what the song sounds like, it always has a three |
| 1:17.6 | syllable phrase at the end of it. |
| 1:19.8 | But when Otter moved to Prince George, a wooded city in Western Canada 20 years ago, he noticed |
| 1:25.8 | that its sparrows were singing a different tune. |
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