Acoustic environment may explain why some bird songs outlast others
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 17-Jun-2026 16:16 ET (17-Jun-2026 20:16 GMT/UTC)
Why do some bird songs endure for generations while others fade away? An FAU study suggests the answer may lie in the landscape itself. Researchers found that the most common songs of Bachman’s sparrows travel through natural habitats with greater clarity than rarer songs, raising the possibility that environmental acoustics help shape which vocal traditions are learned, shared and passed down over time.
Research from the University of Birmingham has found that schools recognised for their character education provision show stronger academic progress than those without this recognition. Research from the University of Birmingham has found that schools recognised for their character education provision show stronger academic progress than those without this recognition.
How do animals benefit from living in colonies? By tracking over one-third of Adélie penguins in an Antarctic colony, we found that penguins often departed together and used information from conspecifics when searching for foraging sites. Individuals that had been unsuccessful on their previous trip were especially likely to reach new sites by using social information. These findings suggest that colonies can function as information hubs, helping animals make better decisions about where to forage.
On Wall Street, analysts with short-term or long-term orientations may issue different financial forecasts for the same company, says Yong Yu, professor of accounting at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.
In new research with Shuping Chen, professor of accounting at Texas McCombs, Yu finds those differences are partly cultural, depending on analysts’ cultures of origin. Analysts whose inferred ancestral cultures place greater emphasis on long-term orientation make more and better long-term earnings predictions. Their stock picks average 0.30% higher monthly returns than those of analysts from less long-term-oriented cultural backgrounds.