Bela Bartok's third piano concerto was inspired by birds in North Carolina, where Bartok was living during the composition. The rest of the avian orchestra Beyond that two-part voice box, birds also use their bodies to make sound in other ways. While courting, the palm cockatoo, for example, breaks a branch, carves it into a drumstick, and bangs a hollow log as a signal to females that he's on the prowl. Providentially, he stores the stick to use it again, said Baptista. The European snipe, on the other hand, dives to force wind through its feathers, which act as reeds.
Birds also get a musical education from their parents.
This tradition, Baptista added, is often found in human tribes.