Study shows that songbirds recognize sound patterns using the overall spectral shape

(Phys.org)—New research on how songbirds recognize a sound sequence calls into question the prevailing view that songbirds tend to rely on absolute pitch to recognize a song pattern as opposed to humans who tend to rely on relative pitch. Micah R. Bregman, Aniruddh D. Patel, and Timothy Q. Gentner from the University of California in San Diego and Tufts University demonstrate through behavioral studies that starlings recognize a song pattern by its absolute spectral shape. Their work appea