We've Been Ignoring Female Birdsong for Centuries

Go to http://Brilliant.org/SciShow to try their Math History course. The first 200 subscribers get 20% off an annual Premium subscription.

Birdsong has historically been described as a male trait to compete for female mates, but there's a good chance that you've never learned about female birdsong, and they do indeed sing!

Hosted by: Hank Green

SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org
----------
Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:

Marwan Hassoun, Jb Taishoff, Bd_Tmprd, Harrison Mills, Jeffrey Mckishen, James Knight, Christoph Schwanke, Jacob, Matt Curls, Sam Buck, Christopher R Boucher, Eric Jensen, Lehel Kovacs, Adam Brainard, Greg, Ash, Sam Lutfi, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, charles george, Alex Hackman, Chris Peters, Kevin Bealer
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow
Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow
----------
Sources:
2020 Women advancing female birdsong research
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347220302256?via%3Dihub
2019 Why females sing?—pair communication/other song functions in eastern bluebirds
https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article-abstract/30/6/1653/5543280?redirectedFrom=fulltext
2018 The Invisible Women. American Ornithological Society
https://americanornithology.org/the-invisible-women/
2016 Typical Males & Unconventional Females: Songs & Singing Behaviors of Duetting Oriole
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2016.00014/full
2016 Female in-nest chatter increases predation
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0513
2015 Female songbirds still struggling to be heard
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16701408/
2015 Functional aspects of song-learning in songbirds (male)
http://courses.washington.edu/ccab/B&B%20TREE%202005.pdf
2014 Female song widespread & ancestral in songbirds
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4379
2008 Females sing more frequently than males in Streak-backed Oriole
https://academic.oup.com/condor/article/110/2/387/5152393
2006 Female finery is not for males
https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(06)00030-9?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0169534706000309%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
2005 Male & female song structure & singing behaviour in duetting eastern whipbird Psophodes olivaceus
https://www.publish.csiro.au/zo/ZO04083
2003 The “Mute” Sex Revisited: Vocal Production & Perception Learning in Female Songbirds
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065345403330025?via%3Dihub
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00265-003-0741-x
defense?
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00265-002-0488-9
1998 Functions of duet & solo songs of female birds
https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(97)01241-X?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS016953479701241X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
BIRDSONG Ball, G. F., & Hulse, S. H. (1998). Birdsong. American Psychologist, 53(1), 37–58.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.53.1.37
1996 Female song attracts male alpine accentors Prunella collaris
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.1996.0022
1986 Sexual selection & the evolution of song
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234150518_Sexual_Selection_and_the_Evolution_of_Song
The Female Bird Song Project
https://ebird.org/news/femalebirdsong17/

Images:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Gould_Zoology_of_the_Voyage_of_the_Beagle_Pyrocephalus_nanus.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gilgit2/49493136371/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gilgit2/31928281574/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bhnuthatch611/49658803853/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wackybadger/13894874182/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Subdesert_Mesite.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/zambog/29990431240/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/francesco_veronesi/15286496791/in/photolist-DPdt8H-MG9NmG-NXQhz5-phPhVv
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vogel_op_curacau.JPG
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venezuelan_Troupial_pair.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Male_and_female_superb_fairy_wren.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/36143390993/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bird-lore_(1901)_(14732651936).jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bird-lore_(1917)_(14569117928).jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Monitoreo_de_Aves_a_Largo_Plazo.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kathy_Martin_holding_a_willow_ptarmigan_in_1983.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Collecting_data_(33802854470).jpg