https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr9983
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.15.603339v1.full.pdf
We first document acoustic patterns that were widely shared across passerines and similar to music universals (e.g., small pitch intervals), highlighting the role of shared vocal production mechanisms in these patterns.
The patterns include small pitch intervals, regular and predictable rhythms, and phrase-final elongation, in which the last utterance in a phrase tends to be longer than the others.
The study, which compared bird vocalizations with a global collection of human speech and songs, could be used to better understand the mechanisms of vocal production and auditory processing across species, the researchers said.
https://phys.org/news/2026-10-birds-humans-fundamental-song-speech.html
"We propose that shared acoustic patterns among birds and humans may be due to common vocal production mechanisms or biases," said Logan James, first author and postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology. "For example, birds and humans are unlikely to dramatically change pitch from one note to the next ('small pitch intervals') because it is difficult to do. Phrase-final elongation in birds and humans could be due to breathing patterns when we vocalize."
This study is the first to compare vocal patterning in birdsong that includes both species of birds that learn their songs and species whose songs are innate.

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