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Bird Song and Parallel Evolution: learning from our feathered friends

10,000 Birds

These bird songs have two aspects, and I oversimplify but not excessively so: A genetically inherited template, usually specific to the song-producing sex, and a learned song that consists of the template shaped by experience as a developing bird hears the adult version of its own song. But the same is true of the song itself.

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The Sibley Guide to Birds, Second Edition: A Review of an Iconic Guide in a New Edition

10,000 Birds

You can interpret this major change as Sibley creating his own design template, utilizing placement to create connections and putting more trust in users’ basic knowledge. I did find an error in the introductory page for Orioles and Blackbirds. I just wish there was a little more uniformity in how the design was implemented.