Survey Finds Blackbirds to Have the Most Beautiful Songs in the Avian World–Science Explains Why

– SWNS

The next time you hear a blackbird singing in the dead of night, know that you’re listening to the most pleasant song in the world.

What the bird lacks in dressage it makes up for in repertoire, a new survey and study from the University of Tübingen found in which researchers set out to discover the key ingredients that make birdsong pleasant.

The blackbird topped the ‘pleasantness’ table with an average score of 4.52 out of 5, beating the willow warbler to first position (4.45) . The blackcap filled out the top 3.

“You don’t have to be a ‘bird person’ to find bird sounds beautiful,” said study author Dr. Nadine Kalb from Tübingen U. “Being able to recognize birds by their appearance or song did not affect how people rated calls.”

By asking people to listen to birdsongs and rate them for pleasantness, then cross-referencing the results with information about the calls’ acoustic characteristics, Kalb and co-authors identified key aspects that make some birdsongs seem more pleasant than others.

Participants rated the perceived pleasantness of 123 different bird songs on a scale from 1 (not very pleasant) to 5 (very pleasant). Calls which are varied, higher-pitched, and not too loud are considered most pleasant.

The research team suspected that some acoustic characteristics, such as a high amplitude—perceived as a loud noise—would be associated with a lower pleasantness rating.

But they also suspected some personal characteristics, such as individuals’ knowledge about birds, would influence pleasantness ratings, and so participants were also asked questions which measured their birding skills and their perception of birds.

“I’m very interested in human-bird relationships,” said senior study author Dr. Christoph Randler, also from the University of Tübingen.

“Bird sounds are often considered one of the most enjoyable aspects of spending time in nature, and previous research has shown that they can contribute to psychological restoration and well-being. However, not all bird sounds are perceived equally positively.”

For example, the barn owl finished rock bottom with an average pleasantness score of just 1.32.

A narrower bandwidth, which captures the range of frequencies a song used, and greater complexity, the number and variety of elements in the song, were perceived as more pleasant, as were birdsongs at a higher frequency or with a relatively low amplitude. The songs that scored highest also avoided a key frequency range where human hearing is highly sensitive.

“We might be wired to prefer more variable sounds with moderate amplitudes and frequencies because they signal a safe, healthy, and restorative environment where we can relax,” said Dr. Kalb.

To follow up the research, they want to carry out larger studies with broader samples including more men, different cultures, and more experienced birdwatchers.

“I would love to investigate how bird sounds influence people in real-world environments,” Dr. Randler said. “That would help us better understand the role that healthy ecosystems play in supporting both biodiversity and human well-being.”

Top 20 Most Pleasant (Old World) Bird Songs

• 1. Common Blackbird (4.52 average pleasantness score)
• 2. Willow Warbler (4.45)
• 3. Blackcap (4.43)
• 4. Mistle Thrush (4.33)
• 5. Garden Warbler (4.30)
• 6. Dunnock (4.30)
• 7. Chaffinch (4.29)
• 8. Common Nightingale (4.26)
• 9. Common Linnet (4.26)
• 10. European Goldfinch (4.26)
• 11. European Pied Flycatcher (4.25)
• 12. Eurasian Wren (4.24)
• 13. Skylark (4.23)
• 14. Eurasian Golden Oriole (4.17)
• 15. Common Cuckoo (4.13)
• 16. Tree Pipit (4.08)
• 17. Common Redstart (4.08)
• 18. European Greenfinch (4.08)
• 19. Eurasian Treecreeper (4.05)
• 20. European Robin (4.04) 

Survey Finds Blackbirds to Have the Most Beautiful Songs in the Avian World–Science Explains Why

Read More........→September 06, 2026

Birds masturbate, and that’s perfectly normal

Chloe Heys, University of Lancashire; Kevin Arbuckle, Swansea University, and Matilda Brindle, University of Oxford

For captive animals, engaging in natural behaviour is a pillar of the animal welfare framework. But when it comes to sex, one important behaviour has been largely ignored, and sometimes even punished: masturbation.

Solo sex is surprisingly common across the animal kingdom. It is well documented in primates. Tortoises are surprisingly vocal during their solo lovemaking endeavours, if not very graceful. Camels masturbate by rubbing their penises in the sand and porcupines make inventive use of all sorts of objects.

Our new study could change how other scientists view masturbation in birds and improve their welfare.

Masturbation also seems to be common in birds. A quick internet search brings up an abundance of video clips on social media and dedicated posts on bird-keeping forums, largely from worried or bemused hobbyist bird keepers.

It has often been treated as an abnormal problem behaviour in captive birds (particularly parrots). Folklore husbandry has assumed it is the undesirable outcome of stress, bad health or poor environment. Bird keepers often therefore discourage masturbation via punishment or veterinary interventions such as diet or care changes and, sometimes, even drugs and surgery. Despite the welfare implications, masturbation in birds had been largely unexplored by the scientific community.

We set out to change that, by investigating the distribution and evolutionary history of masturbation in birds for the first time. We studied 120 species of bird across 22 major groups, gathering data from the scattered scientific literature, online reports and community forums, and surveys of bird experts.

Our study found that masturbation is widespread across birds with a strong evolutionary history, meaning that it’s an ancient trait probably similar in closely related species. Although we found more records of masturbation in male birds, it occurs in both sexes and across all age groups.

Solo sex also seems to be linked to species that mate with multiple partners, supporting the idea that it might help to increase reproductive success when there is a high degree of competition over fertilisation. For instance, in males it may flush out old sperm to leave newer (better condition) sperm for mating. In females it may increase sexual arousal to help with sneak mating with males other than their partner.

Wild behaviour

Crucially, we discovered that masturbation is actually less common in captivity than the wild, and more common in birds reared by their own parents than by humans. What this tells us is that masturbation in birds is neither an unnatural behaviour, nor a consequence of captivity. Given this finding, it is important that birds are not prevented from masturbation. Of course, as with any behaviour, there may be extreme cases where chronic masturbation could indicate underlying health or husbandry issues.

Avian self-pleasure is usually a rather inelegant affair, in which a bird rubs their cloaca (a shared orifice for both excretion and reproduction) against an object, like a branch, twig or toy. This is often accompanied by a lot of flapping and self-satisfied vocalisation.

One potential reason for the lack of scientific studies exploring avian masturbation may be because the cloaca is thought to have fewer nerve clusters, and therefore lower sensitivity, than our own genitals.

Clearly however, birds are getting some satisfaction from masturbation, so perhaps there is more to a bird’s sensations during sex than has previously been recognised. Further exploration of this could have important implications for both welfare and captive breeding programmes. While sexual pleasure may not be exactly the same experience as for mammals, it is wildly premature to dismiss the idea that birds also feel pleasure.

Chloe Heys, Senior Lecturer in Biology, University of Lancashire; Kevin Arbuckle, Senior Lecturer in Biosciences, Swansea University, and Matilda Brindle, Postdoctoral Researcher in Evolutionary Biology, University of Oxford

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→May 13, 2026