Vocal mimicry in songbirds

许多世界上最大的鸟类分支-鸣禽-在它们的歌声中融入了声音模仿，但尽管科学界对声音模仿的兴趣可以追溯到亚里士多德，但取得的进展有限。通过我们独特的研究计划，我们的目标是提供一个基于经验的，理论上知情的鸟类拟声理解。在一个重要的进展中，我们将对两性进行研究，以检验长期以来以男性为中心的关于进化起源和这一特征维持的假设。至关重要的是，我们专注于谱系发现只有在澳大利亚和巴布亚新几内亚，鸣禽起源，发展一个强大的科学理解整个鸣禽进化支的声音模仿，因此提供了一个重要的新视角为什么和如何开始的歌曲。

Many of the world’s largest clade of birds - the songbirds - incorporate vocal mimicry in their songs, but while scientific interest in vocal mimicry dates from Aristotle, limited progress has been made. With our unique research program we aim to provide an empirically based, theoretically informed understanding of avian vocal mimicry. In an important advance, we will examine both sexes to test long-held male-centric assumptions about evolutionary origins and maintenance of this trait. Crucially, we focus on lineages found only in Australia and PNG, where songbirds originated, to develop a robust scientific understanding of vocal mimicry across the entire songbird clade, and so provide an important new perspective on why and how song began.