In the United States lives a wren who has the ingenious ability to keep time. Some musicians have tried to reproduce the same rhythm without success.
Well, humans aren’t the only ones who can keep the beat, sing and play a song. Most animals, especially birds , use music as a tool to communicate. The union between the right rhythm and the correct alternation of sounds and pauses is essential talent to create songs that people like. For now, the studies on the subject have taken place in the laboratory, but thanks finally to the University of Austin, Texas, things have changed. A bird named South American wren has been studied . Its peculiarity is to keep time as much as professional musicians.
Its Latin name is Microcerculus marginatus and it lives in the tropical forests of Central and South America. The first author of the study, Carlos Rodriguez-Saltos, lived in Ecuador and has a lot of experience with these animals. His ecology professor had accustomed him to listening to their singing carefully. A song made up of loud chirps and numerous pauses. A perfect and regular song to study a bird’s natural talent for keeping time. Saltos and his team plugged microphones into the forest so they could record 23 different wren songs.
The result was that 10 out of 23 birds were able to keep time perfectly. A pause increase of 0.5 seconds per cycle up to 10 seconds in length. In short, a bird that knows how to keep time better than professional musicians who have performed the same song. All this is attested, as the recordings were released online for all those who wanted to test themselves with the talent of the wrens. Obviously each wren specimen has a different accuracy time on keeping time. It means that they are younger specimens who still have to hone their skills.
- There is a bird that keeps time like the best musicians (focus.it)