Nature's Music

Please note that this book was originally accompanied by two audio CDs. However, this book is now a print-on-demand title and these CDs are no longer included.

The voices of birds have always been a source of fascination. Nature's Music brings together some of the world's experts on birdsong, to review the advances that have taken place in our understanding of how and why birds sing, what their songs and calls mean, and how they have evolved. All contributors have strived to speak, not only to fellow experts, but also to the general reader. The result is a book of readable science, richly illustrated with pictures of the sounds of birds.

Bird song is much more than just one behaviour of a single, particular group of organisms. It is a model for the study of a wide variety of animal behaviour systems, ecological, evolutionary and neurobiological. Bird song sits at the intersection of breeding, social and cognitive behaviour and ecology. As such interest in Nature's Music will extend far beyond the purely ornithological – to behavioural ecologists psychologists and neurobiologists of all kinds.

- Science and birdsong: the good old days
- Vocal fighting and flirting: the functions of birdsong
- Learning to sing
- The diversity and plasticity of birdsong
- Bird calls: a cornucopia for communication
- Singing in the wild: the ecology of birdsong
- Audition: can birds hear everything they sing?
- Brains and birdsong
- How birds sing and why it matters
- Birdsong and evolution
- Performance limits on birdsong
- Birdsong and conservation
- Grey parrots: learning and using speech
- Singing, socializing, and the music effect