Song Searching

By: Lynn Thomasson

A perfect body and a long, heartfelt serenade – that’s what a girl wants, that is, if she’s a songbird.

Scientists know that female songbirds choose mates who can sing complex, multi-syllable songs. And, in both birds and humans, a symmetrical body is a plus.

Some scientists hypothesize that birds develop more symmetrically if they grow up in a healthy environment. A healthy, symmetrical body could mean a healthy brain to think up long love songs. We know that female songbirds want bodily symmetry and an elaborate musical repertoire in their mates, but are the two traits related?

Sachi Vora, along with three other undergraduates and a professor, trekked through the Molas Pass deep in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado last summer to find out. The team slept in canvas tents in a campground near the meadow. “You wake up in the morning and see snow-capped peaks around you,” says Vora.

Vora spent two months measuring Lincoln sparrows and recording their songs to see if there was a correlation between symmetry and complex songs. She says, “Some birds have 20 to 25 syllable types. Others birds have 7 or 8 and they’ll put all 7 or 8 in one song, so obviously that’s less complex.”

The students set out traps and once the birds were caught, the students took measurements, such as wingspan and beak length, fastened multicolored bands around their legs and set the birds free.

Each bird had a unique combination of colored bands so each song could be matched to a specific bird. The students hiked daily through the meadow hunting for the banded birds and their songs. “It was fun juggling a microphone in one hand and a pair of binoculars in another,” says Vora.

This semester she’s working on processing the data she collected.

A Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) provided funding for Vora’s research experience. The research fellowship, and funding from the Biology Department, helped pay for plane tickets to Colorado, camping gear and meals.

Sachi Vora, a junior biology major, plans to go to medical school after graduation. Professor, Keith Sockman, along with students, Charles Schutte, Mary Beth Danforth, Adam Byerly, also worked on the research project.

Interested in songbirds? Check out Keith Sockman’s research at this Endeavors article – “Love is for the Birds” (http://research.unc.edu/endeavors/fall2005/finches.php)

< back to research