Anthropologists, for example, have discovered that for thousands of years, the Amahuaca Indians of the Amazon rain forests have relied on nuances in the whistles of the tinamous bird and other avian tunes. D.C. The symposium, one the meeting's most popular, included song styling in elephants, a demonstration of whale songs, love calls of insects and birdcall-inspired prehistoric flutes. Gray and her colleagues now hope to develop educational tools such as books and CD-ROMs to move biomusic into schools. Some universities offer related bioacoustics courses in their animal behavior departments, but Gray hopes to draw younger students to biomusic, too. People Aren't The Only Musicmakers Cynics may argue animal sounds are just sounds, sometimes pretty, but not music, a term that implies creativity and deliberate composition.
Birds sing for many reasons, from advertising for a mate to warning off intruders.
But studies also suggest communication is not the only reason for bird music. Luis Baptista, chair of the ornithology and mammalogy department at the California Academy of Sciences, has found birds sing when they appear to be content. In this sense, music may serve the same function in humans and birds. We usually sing when we feel good and happy. Interestingly enough, bachelor birds sing much more than paired males.