A brown thrasher knows a thousand songs. A wood thrush can sing two pitches at once. A mockingbird can match the sounds around it — including car alarms. These are just a few of the 4,000 species of songbirds. How do these birds learn songs? How do they know to mimic the songs of their own species? Are they born knowing how to sing? Partha P. Mitra illuminates the beautiful world of birdsong.

一个棕色的鸫鸟知道一千首歌。 一只画眉可以一次唱两个音高。 知更鸟可以模仿周围的声音-包括汽车警报器。 这些只是4,000种鸣禽中的几种。这些鸟如何学习歌曲？它们怎么知道模仿自己物种的歌曲？ 他们天生会唱歌吗？