This one is definitely for all the bird enthusiasts, soon parrots might graduate from being mere mimics with a limited vocabulary to proper talking birds as a new study has found that that parrots and humans use their tongues to craft and shape sound in a similar manner.
The study, which has been published in this month's issue of Current Biology, indicates that both parrots and humans rely on extremely specialized vibrating organs in their throats. The study also found that even tiny changes in the position of a parrot's tongue could lead to big differences in sound.
This is the first direct evidence that parrots are able to use their large tongues to change the acoustic properties of their vocalizations which means that parrots now make many more distinctive sounds than previously believed.
Earlier it was believed that the complexity of parrot communication was because of the syrinx, an organ in their throats but now it has been found that the tongue is involved, just like with human speech.
The researchers studied five monk parakeets, small parrots native to South America. While a speaker swept through a series of tones, from 500 to 11,000 Hz the researchers measured how much the birds' tongue position influenced the outgoing sound.
They found that a change of just a fraction of a millimeter in tongue position could significantly affect the qualities of the emerging sound. The scientists also suggest that there are four acoustic "formants" in parakeet sounds.
Formants are small ranges of frequencies that remain strongly audible as sound travels past the throat, tongue, mouth and nasal cavities. The geometry of these passages deadens some frequencies but leaves others relatively unaffected. What's left distinguishes the character of a sound, in this case, the voice of a parakeet.
Check this out
Showing posts with label Parrot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parrot. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Parrot's Vibrant Red Colors
ASU Researcher Finds Novel Chemistry At Work To Provide Parrot's Vibrant Red Colors
TEMPE, Ariz. – Parrots, long a favorite pet animal, are attractive to owners because of their vibrant colors. But those colors may mean more to parrots than what meets the eye.
For more than a century, biochemists have known that parrots use an unusual set of pigments to produce their rainbow of plumage colors, but their
biochemical identity has remained elusive. Now, an Arizona State University researcher has uncovered the chemistry behind the colors of parrots, describing on a molecular level what is responsible for their bright red feathers.
The work casts a new light on what is chemically responsible for the colors of birds, and defies previous assumptions and explanations for color variations in parrots, said Kevin McGraw, an assistant professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences.
“Evolutionary biologists have not really thought hard about parrot coloration,” said McGraw. “This research is exposing a whole new world of color communication in parrots and the potential physiological and biochemical roles of the new molecules we found in our work.”
Details of the work are in a paper, “Distribution of unique red feather pigments in parrots,” by McGraw and Mary Nogare, a parrot fancier from Snoqualmie, Wash., published in the Feb. 16, 2005 issue of the journal Biology Letters.
Animals, like birds and fishes, commonly use biochromes like carotenoids to acquire red, orange or yellow coloration, but McGraw and Nogare found that these compounds are not responsible for the red colors found in the parrot species they sampled.
The researchers used a chemical analysis technique called high-performance liquid chromatography to survey the pigments present in red parrot feathers. McGraw and Nogare collected and analyzed samples from 44 parrot species that have red feathers. Overall, there are some 350 species of parrots, 80 percent of which have red in their plumage.
They found a suite of five molecules, called polyenal lipochromes (or psittacofulvins), that color parrot plumage red in all of the species studied.
“We’ve uncovered a system where all red parrots use the same set of molecules to color themselves,” McGraw said. “It is a unique pigment found nowhere else in the world. We are fascinated at how parrots are able to do this.
“The fact that there is a single set of molecules unique to and widespread among parrots, suggests that it is a pretty important evolutionary novelty, and one we should carefully consider when we think about why parrots are so strikingly colorful,” McGraw said.
McGraw has been studying the colors of birds for seven years. He first became interested in the behavioral significance of bird colors as a form of visual communication within a species (e.g. to denote status or attractiveness). As he studied these aspects, he wanted to understand more about what makes the colors of the birds possible, and then focused on “deconstructing the color into its component parts.”
McGraw said an interesting aspect of the five polyenal lipochromes that provide the red in parrots, is that the pigment is found only in the bird’s feathers and nowhere else in the body of the bird, indicating that parrots manufacture these molecules internally and directly at the maturing follicles of the growing, colorful plumage.
In addition, these pigments may play a valuable role in maintaining the health of parrots. McGraw cites an independent study on the parrot pigments that suggests that they can act as anti-oxidants to quench free radicals and potentially protect cells and tissues in the body from oxidative damage.
Now, McGraw says, he’s interested in learning more about the connection between the red colors and anti-oxidants within and among parrot species, as well as “to specifically explore the balance of naturally and sexually selected costs and benefits to becoming colorful.
“Parrots are unusual among birds, in that they almost without exception display fantastic colors but exhibit very little variation in color within a species – at least in colors visible to us. Parrots in general may not be using color in the classic cases of mate choice or competitive ability,” he said. “Exactly why they are so uniformly colored remains an interesting mystery to us – one we want to investigate.”
“There is a sea of colors in birds,” he added. “Our goal is to learn why there is such a diversity from an evolutionary standpoint.”
TEMPE, Ariz. – Parrots, long a favorite pet animal, are attractive to owners because of their vibrant colors. But those colors may mean more to parrots than what meets the eye.
For more than a century, biochemists have known that parrots use an unusual set of pigments to produce their rainbow of plumage colors, but their
biochemical identity has remained elusive. Now, an Arizona State University researcher has uncovered the chemistry behind the colors of parrots, describing on a molecular level what is responsible for their bright red feathers.
The work casts a new light on what is chemically responsible for the colors of birds, and defies previous assumptions and explanations for color variations in parrots, said Kevin McGraw, an assistant professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences.
“Evolutionary biologists have not really thought hard about parrot coloration,” said McGraw. “This research is exposing a whole new world of color communication in parrots and the potential physiological and biochemical roles of the new molecules we found in our work.”
Details of the work are in a paper, “Distribution of unique red feather pigments in parrots,” by McGraw and Mary Nogare, a parrot fancier from Snoqualmie, Wash., published in the Feb. 16, 2005 issue of the journal Biology Letters.
Animals, like birds and fishes, commonly use biochromes like carotenoids to acquire red, orange or yellow coloration, but McGraw and Nogare found that these compounds are not responsible for the red colors found in the parrot species they sampled.
The researchers used a chemical analysis technique called high-performance liquid chromatography to survey the pigments present in red parrot feathers. McGraw and Nogare collected and analyzed samples from 44 parrot species that have red feathers. Overall, there are some 350 species of parrots, 80 percent of which have red in their plumage.
They found a suite of five molecules, called polyenal lipochromes (or psittacofulvins), that color parrot plumage red in all of the species studied.
“We’ve uncovered a system where all red parrots use the same set of molecules to color themselves,” McGraw said. “It is a unique pigment found nowhere else in the world. We are fascinated at how parrots are able to do this.
“The fact that there is a single set of molecules unique to and widespread among parrots, suggests that it is a pretty important evolutionary novelty, and one we should carefully consider when we think about why parrots are so strikingly colorful,” McGraw said.
McGraw has been studying the colors of birds for seven years. He first became interested in the behavioral significance of bird colors as a form of visual communication within a species (e.g. to denote status or attractiveness). As he studied these aspects, he wanted to understand more about what makes the colors of the birds possible, and then focused on “deconstructing the color into its component parts.”
McGraw said an interesting aspect of the five polyenal lipochromes that provide the red in parrots, is that the pigment is found only in the bird’s feathers and nowhere else in the body of the bird, indicating that parrots manufacture these molecules internally and directly at the maturing follicles of the growing, colorful plumage.
In addition, these pigments may play a valuable role in maintaining the health of parrots. McGraw cites an independent study on the parrot pigments that suggests that they can act as anti-oxidants to quench free radicals and potentially protect cells and tissues in the body from oxidative damage.
Now, McGraw says, he’s interested in learning more about the connection between the red colors and anti-oxidants within and among parrot species, as well as “to specifically explore the balance of naturally and sexually selected costs and benefits to becoming colorful.
“Parrots are unusual among birds, in that they almost without exception display fantastic colors but exhibit very little variation in color within a species – at least in colors visible to us. Parrots in general may not be using color in the classic cases of mate choice or competitive ability,” he said. “Exactly why they are so uniformly colored remains an interesting mystery to us – one we want to investigate.”
“There is a sea of colors in birds,” he added. “Our goal is to learn why there is such a diversity from an evolutionary standpoint.”
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Bad Mouthed Parrot in trouble with Queen
LONDON (Reuters) - A foul-mouthed parrot, which blurts out expletives and pecks people when she's angry, is to be removed from a British Royal Navy ship to spare any embarrassment during a visit by Queen Elizabeth.
African-gray parrot Sunny will be sent ashore from HMS Lancaster so she doesn't ruffle any royal feathers when the queen and her husband Prince Philip visit the ship on Friday, British newspapers reported Wednesday.
The frigate's 205-strong crew are determined to avoid a repeat of a recent visit by the British fleet's commander-in-chief, when Sunny's four-lettered rantings could be heard even though she was locked in a cupboard.
"She learns new words all the time and mimics what people say," Lieutenant Commander John Pheasant was quoted as saying.
African-gray parrot Sunny will be sent ashore from HMS Lancaster so she doesn't ruffle any royal feathers when the queen and her husband Prince Philip visit the ship on Friday, British newspapers reported Wednesday.
The frigate's 205-strong crew are determined to avoid a repeat of a recent visit by the British fleet's commander-in-chief, when Sunny's four-lettered rantings could be heard even though she was locked in a cupboard.
"She learns new words all the time and mimics what people say," Lieutenant Commander John Pheasant was quoted as saying.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
