Most wild animals are only able to make one sound at a time. Even in people like the famous Tuvan throat singers, although able to make multiple harmonics with their voice box, they are not able to make multiple independent sounds. Enter birds...

The independent nerve systems to the two halves of the syrinx was first discovered by researchers decades ago when looking at how birds control song.

So what do these independeant nerve systems do? Well in short it allows a bird to sing two separate independent sounds. It effectively can duet with itself. This was known for a long time in the ornithological world and species like the Wood Thrush in the USA were known and recorded to be able to do this. The scientific term of singing two notes at once is known as biphonation (making two sounds at once). Some scientific works have been written on this subject. Although there are many, here is one example if you want to read to a more technical level on this subject.
Click here

This appears not to have been researched very widely in the Southern African context. We have recorded Short-clawed Lark displaying this amazing vocal ability at Botsalano Nature Reserve. This was from a single bird on a fence post in grassland with no other birds anywhere near this singing bird. It is certainly an area of Southern African ornithiology that is poorly researched.

Birds are far more adaptable than we give them credit for.

All recordings copyright Simply Birding.

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