In Scientific Controversies, hosted by our own Janna Levin, we tackle complex, conceptual, occasionally amorphous topics like animal consciousness and string theory. These rich, hour-long conversations take place in person at Pioneer Works, and feature big thinkers engaged in big questions. To watch is a feast. “5 Takeaways” is a snack, an amuse-bouche for the mind. Because comprehension sometimes demands—or, at the very least, appreciates—distillation, and the internet loves a listicle. Below, for the benefit of lay science enthusiasts, Broadcast Assistant Editor Stella Belt serves up key takeaways from a conversation between Janna Levin and bird neuroscientists Erich Jarvis and Lauren Riters. Watch their full discussion on YouTube.

1. Birds aren’t the descendants of dinosaurs—they are dinosaurs.
Birds are the last living dinosaurs, offering a glimpse into prehistory. Modern birds are embedded in the theropod group of the dinosaur family tree, within the same bipedal category as fearsome predators like the T. Rex. Songbirds and parrots are known to have evolved from the monstrous “terror bird,” a giant towering at 10 feet tall.

Could other dinosaurs sing, like birds do? Possibly. Learned vocalization evolved separately among birds and humans, so it’s possible that other species developed it, too. Regardless, language and speech are rare because they attracts attention. A singing species has to be an apex predator of sorts (or at the very least, smart enough) to survive. All vocal learning mammals—whales, dolphins, elephants—are at the top of their food chains; except for bats, who vocalize in an ultrasonic range that most other species can’t hear.

2. Pigeons can tell a Picasso from a Monet.
Humans long mistook the smoothness of the bird brain as evidence of a feeble intellect (hence the derogatory expression). The consensus was that the vastly increased surface area granted by our cranial folds gave us an unparalleled advantage. But avian behavior is far too complex to result from a simple mind. Most bird brains actually have twice the neurons per cubic millimeter compared to mammals, and songbirds have four times that neural density.

While the bird brain is organized differently than ours, it has many of the same neurochemicals. And their visual systems are far superior, with four cones (cells in the retina) to our three. Their capacities for visual memory are incredible, too: shockingly, pigeons can learn 700 different paintings and differentiate between artistic styles, remembering individual pieces better than humans do.

3. If you can talk you can sing. If you can sing you can dance.
Only vocal learning species can learn how to dance. In birds and humans alike, vocal pathways are embedded in the brain regions that control movement, allowing us to synchronize our movements to rhythm. When the pathway that hears sound is rapidly integrated with the one that produces it, this contaminates the rest of the motor system, meaning that other muscles start moving to the music, too. This is epigenetic, meaning the DNA is pre-existing, but gene expressions are “turned on” when birds and humans sing and release oxytocin.

4. Birds have regional dialects.
All vocal learning species must be raised by parents of a sort, because their skills require nurturing, listening, and models to imitate. Researchers discovered that birds learn songs from adult tutors, though they can typically only learn the melodies of their own kind. As languages are passed down through generations, it turns out that different birds of the same species can develop regional dialects.

In a cowbird study, an Oklahoman flock of males was moved to Indiana and housed with a native female. The researchers figured that the midwesterner would want to mate with her new southern companions, but she seemed disinterested. Despite being outnumbered, she didn’t assimilate to their ways, nor did she adjust her taste—rather, all the Oklahoman males began to sing Indianan carols to attract her. Perhaps among birds, opposites don’t attract. But geography clearly shapes the character of their communities, informing the way individuals speak, sing, and even who they desire.

5. Birds get opioid hits from singing.
Birds sing to attract mates and defend territories, but they also sing simply because it feels good. New York City’s skies fill with song in the spring, as seasonal breeders time their flirtations to match resource availability. Some birds take in daylight through their skulls rather than their eyes, allowing sun to reach deep brain structures and produce sex hormones in the warmer months. While dopamine is partly responsible for reward-related processes, endogenous opioids (like heroin and fentanyl, but au naturale) play a strong hand in facilitating bird song, too.

If you stimulate avian opioid receptors, they sing at high rates—but they aren’t singing mating songs. In fact, differences in song function can be intuited from the fact that they’ll stop singing altogether if you interrupt their romantic melodies with a dope hit. Breeding leads to an endogenous opioid release, so males will halt their tunes once they’ve received it. And as they practice in the fall, their songs are rewarded by a low-level endogenous release, which triggers different brain patterns than when they’re singing to attract a female. Alone, they’re able to explore different melodies without chasing an ideal, as we might while singing in the shower. And if you take a bird to a certain spot and let it sing, studies have shown that it will develop a strong attachment to that venue. ♦