Why Birds Sing by David Rothenberg was one of the most engaging science books I've read. It can easily be enjoyed by anyone who enjoys the sound of birds whether they have head for science or not. There is a wide variety of material here, all of which gives you a better appreciation for the noise different species of birds make. Some of it seems musical to human ears and some does not, but regardless there is a lot to learn about the pattern and "lyric" (my term) that each bird uses. Rothenberg, with a combination of history, interviews, and personal experience, does a nice job of showing how science so far has only scratched the surface of what is going on in those little bird heads. I challenge you to read just the preface of this book and then see if you can put it back down without at least wishing you had the pocket money to bring it home.
The author is both philosopher and musician. He is a professor of philosophy and music at NJIT and plays the jazz clarinet. The writing of this book began with his attempt to interact and play music with birds at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. The preface says that this encounter changed his "sense of how music emerges out of nature." His pursuit of the question of why birds sing incorporates a review of scientific observations, but he is not beyond challenging scientists to look beyond the base purposes of territory, food and mate. He relates one story where he was interviewed along side a bird song researcher who was put off by Rothenberg's assertion that bird song was more than a simple routine. To many scientists nature is just a complicated machine and bird song is just a kind of business transaction with females. Rothenberg says, "Nature is not a business." There is without doubt great benefit in the scientific method, but Rothenberg seems to lament that most scientists do not seem brave enough to reach for beauty as a reality instead of just a human mental construct. So do I, which may explain why I enjoyed all of this book.
Chapter one relates some of the author's experiences in the National Aviary that led to his pursuit of why birds sing. It is real enough in its descriptions that I have wanted to visit the place myself since I read it. Each bird is an individual and Rothenberg finds it easier play along with some more than others. The second chapter begins with the beginning of bird song research. At its beginning, bird song research was more poetry than science. The first records of people paying attention to the sound of birds is in poems and art, but even ancient philosophers like Aristotle took time to write about how birds learn to sing. As we move through the next chapters we move through stages of research and the knowledge revealed by those studies. We see how bird song transcriptions began with mnemonics (the spotted towhee's "chup-chup-zee" or the white throated sparrow's "old sam peabody, peabody, peabody"), then by the Enlightenment moved to detailed musical transcriptions only to later move back to mnemonics, then on to modern sonograms. Along the way we get insights into the lives of bird researchers and their desire to understand and relate to the birds they studied.
There are interesting historical tidbits and stories thrown in as well. For example, the European Starling was brought to the USA by a man in the 1800s who wanted to introduce all of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to the New World. He released less than 200 of the birds into Central Park. It was such an invasive species that now one-third of the world's population of starlings is in America. Don't feel bad about shooting a few. I remember the great lengths that people went to rid the Texas A&M campus of the black smelly pests. I have seen them on many occasions fighting on my porch over bird food. However, they are actually very interesting birds in their song. It is not so musical, but very complex. They are also mimics, that can learn new songs and sounds throughout their whole lives. I'm sure you've seen them. They're the only black birds with yellow beaks in North America.
There is one extremely interesting little bird called the European Marsh Warbler that migrates from Northern Europe to Eastern Africa and back. His entire journey can be reconstructed by the song he sings. This bird imitates almost every other bird he encounters along his entire flight path, weaving all of the sounds into his own song.
If I'm not careful I'm going to get carried away here with interesting stories and lessons learned from this book.
Last year Rothenberg wrote another book along the same lines called Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound, apparently looking at whale song and his attempt to play music with those great animals as well. I look forward to finding it on sale somewhere. But who knows... after enjoying Why Birds Sing so much, I may actually pay full price.
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