How Does a Bird Sing?
Vocalization In many ways, bird song is a vocal sound similar in nature to the vocalizations of humans and other mammals. Like humans, birds make sound through breathing in and out of two lungs and through the passage of air creating vibrations within a voice box. However, whereas the human voice box, or larynx, is located at the top of the trachea (windpipe), a bird’s voice box, or syrinx, is located at the bottom of the trachea inside the chest. The positioning of this organ, as well as its functioning, set a bird’s vocal abilities apart from our own. The Syrinx Unlike the larynx, a bird’s syrinx contains no vocal chords. Instead, sound is produced in this organ through the vibration of the walls of the organ. The comparison between these two types of sound is analogous to a comparison between the sounds made by a violin and a kettle drum, respectively. The sound a bird makes with its syrinx is altered both by muscles that change the tension within the organ (thus changing the pitch)
