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BrokenWing Chronicles
Vocalization in Parrots (Syrinx)

An Interesting article
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1193170.htm

Syrinx (Greek for pan pipes) is the name for the vocal organ of birds. Located at the base of a bird's trachea, it produces sounds without the vocal cords of mammals.The sound is produced by vibrations of some or all of the Membrana tympaniformis (the walls of the syrinx) and the Pessulus caused by air flowing through the syrinx. This sets up a self-oscillating system which modulates the airflow creating the sound. The muscles modulate the sound shape by changing the tension of the membranes and the bronchial openings. The syrinx enables some species of birds (such as parrots, parakeets, and mynas) to mimic human speech. Unlike the larynx of mammals, the syrinx is located where the trachea forks into the lungs, and because of this some songbirds can produce more than one sound at a time

(http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i229/tallship30/Syrinx.jpg)

AVIAN AND MICROCHIROPTERAN VOCAL ORGANS

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0001-37652004000200009


Respiratory System

http://vethist.snu.ac.kr/his_lecture/respiratory.htm

From the Bird Channel
Unlike humans, whose larynx is used for speech, the avian larynx is an airway. The sounds birds make emanate from the syrinx, which is located in the throat at the base of the trachea just before it divides into the right and left bronchi.

Until a few years ago, it was thought that the syrinx was responsible for all the intricate vocalizations produced by the birds. It’s true that many of the parrot sounds we hear come from the syrinx, but this is not the case with all of them. Scientists Roderick Southers, Gabriel Beckers and Brian Nelson have shown that parrots use their tongues to alter and refine their vocalizations. The results of their experiments with quaker parakeets show that even tiny variations in tongue position can make big differences in sound. According to Beckers, this might explain why parrots are such great mimics. The scientists’ experiments showed that movement as small as a fraction of a millimeter could influence the resulting sound.

http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-magazines/bird-talk/december-2006/2006-12-exclusive-avian-tongue.aspx

Parrots speak in tongues
Ever wondered what makes parrots so good at mimicking human speech? It turns out that the feathered impressionists use their tongues to create vowel-like sounds, just as we do.

In human speech, noise is produced in the larynx and can then be modified by the movement of the tongue in the mouth. This helps us to make complex vowel and consonant sounds.

http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=1135


The syrinx is the sound-producing vocal organ of birds, located at the base of a bird's trachea. As with the mammalian larynx, sound is produced by the vibration of air flowing through the organ. The syrinx enables some species of birds to produce extremely complex vocalizations, even mimicking human speech. In some songbirds, the syrinx can produce more than one sound at a time.
Avian Respiratory System

http://www.avianweb.com/anatomy.html

BrokenWing

NEAT! I love studying about Bird anatomy. Their respiratory system is quite amazing, the syrinx included. It's funny how birds just open their mouths and sound just "pops" out!

Do you have a Brokenwing Chronicle on the lungs/air sacs? That would be neat to read.

That was very interesting.... AddEmoticons04239

Very good stuff!  I will sticky this one for sure AddEmoticons04239

I have posted a chronicle concerning the avian respiratory system.
Just can't remember where I posted it...I guess I am not that great at knowing where to place my threads...LOL