Female Song Birds Do Sing And Charles Darwin Got It Wrong
Submitted by Chickowee on 06 Mar 2014.
Song is almost as common in female birds as in males, according to new research which challenges Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection and the evolution of elaborate bird songs.
“Darwin focused on the evolution of song through sexual selection, and assumed bird song was a male trait to attract females,” said Dr Naomi Langmore, from the ANU’s Research School of Biology.
“Our findings suggest that bird song may have evolved through a broader process, called social selection, as both sexes competed for food, nest sites, mates and territories.”
