Male birds’ sexy songs may not advertise their brains after all
A biologist rejects an idea he studied for years that quality birdsong is a sign of bird smarts

HITTING THE WRONG NOTE Birdsong is sexy stuff, but a big test in swamp sparrows (one shown) and other experiments have driven one researcher to give up on some 20 years of his own theorizing about why.
Steve Arena/USFWS
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