The reorganization of neural activity during sleep helps young songbirds to develop the vocal skills they display while awake. Practice, or auditory feedback, may also play a role in learning.

For decades, scientists have known that only a few groups of birds—songbirds, parrots, and hummingbirds—can learn to produce new sounds. But a new article in The Quarterly Review of Biology reveals ...

One of the ways we try to understand the origins of human intelligence is by looking at its equivalents elsewhere in the animal world. But doing so turns out to be more complicated than it might seem.

It’s not just great minds that think alike. Dozens of the genes involved in the vocal learning that underpins human speech are also active in some songbirds. And knowing this suggests that birds could ...

Cristina Robinson received funding from the NIH and Vanderbilt University. Kate Snyder receives funding from the National Science Foundation and Vanderbilt University. Nicole Creanza has received ...

Birds at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia weren't too happy with a class at the garden this week - but the birds' temporary captivity was for a good cause, and it didn't last long. The week-long ...