Scientists Find Birds Sing Protective Songs to Their Eggs

Perhaps you've heard that what you eat during pregnancy influences your baby's growth and metabolism. Not too hard to believe. Maybe you've also tried to relax during pregnancy, hoping a low-stress environment will build a calm child. You talk to your unborn baby so she gets to know your voice and begins to learn language.

But can you sing a song to your baby that will prepare his physical body for the climate he will be born in? Zebra finches can.

Scientists knew that the songs of parent birds, sung around the nest, impacted the hatchlings' cognition and learning. But they are fascinated to find that zebra finch parents, during particularly hot spells--and only then--sing an altogether different song to their eggs. This song changes the biology of the unborn birds and affects their development into adulthood.

An otherwise unused song is understood by developing, in-egg baby birds to have messages for the way their bodies are programmed for survival.

To test this, scientists collected eggs and raised them in the lab, playing recordings of zebra finch parents. Some of the eggs heard the special "It's super hot, babies!" incubation song, and some heard a traditional call.

Though when born, the two groups were not measurably different, the Hatchlings that heard the special call grew more slowly and coped better in the heat. They solicited food from their parents differently, and stayed lighter. When they grew up and had their own nests to sing to, they had more chicks than their heavier counterparts.

This means that the acoustic environment can have a considerable impact.

What does this have to do with us humans and our own unborn wee ones? It's hard to say, but music therapists should be jumping for joy.

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The zebra finch parents certainly do not think:

"It's quite warm, Belinda. We should sing the song."

"What song?"

"The song. That one song that our parents never sang for us--the one that means we should grow slow."

"Oh yes, that one. I'm sure we should. At least it will keep them from demanding so much food. It's hotter out here than a wombat with a dingo on it's tail."

"It's that global warming."

I'm not a bird expert. (My brother is, but he was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.) My guess is that, like most animals, their brains are too focused on the here and now and that they rarely think of cell biology or epigenetics. I could be wrong. Somehow they know this protective song.

But somehow, a song--a song they neither learned nor planned--has a physiological effect on the development of their babies. A song! I love this stuff. Talk about mind-body connection! Oooo...shivers.

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We protect and calm and care for our children in myriad ways. For us super-thinking humans, most of it is calculated. But what isn't?

Because if zebra finches have a song to sing to their eggs specifically and exclusively for when it's especially hot, and they're not aware of what they're doing, what else is there? That can't be the only example of the acoustic environment's effects on fetal development in the animal kingdom.

Next time you find yourself pregnant and doing something weird, chalk it up to evolutionary biology--a protection for the unborn, an insurance for great hordes of grandchildren.

Nature knows. Never underestimate the workings of 'ol mama nature.