ArticlePloS one2021
Cockatiels sing human music in synchrony with a playback of the melody.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Novel Approach to Inter-Onset-Interval Ratio Uncovers Music-Like Rhythmic Patterns in Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) Warble Song.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Article
- Music as a social instrument: a brief historical and conceptual perspective.Frontiers in cognition · 2025Review
- Examining the capability for rhythmic synchronization and music production in vocal learning parrot species.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Review
- Expanding Aesthetics.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is known among aviculturists that cockatiels imitate human music with their whistle-like vocal sounds. The present study examined whether cockatiels are also able to sing "in unison", or, line up their vocalizations with a musical melody so that they occur at the same time. Three hand-raised cockatiels were exposed to a musical melody of human whistling produced by an experimenter. All the birds learned to sing the melody. Then, two out of these three birds spontaneously joined in singing during an ongoing melody, so that the singing by the bird and the whistling by the human were nearly perfectly synchronous. Further experiments revealed that the birds actively adjusted their vocal timing to playback of a recording of the same melody. This means cockatiels have a remarkable ability for flexible vocal control similar to what is seen in human singing. The proximate/ultimate factors for this behavior and implications for musicality in humans are discussed.
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