New Discovery: Baby Birds Learn Their Songs Before Hatching

This study and its predecessor of a decade ago revealed that females of eight species of Australian wrens sing to their eggs, usually beginning around day 10 of incubation. Most of the time during the researcher’s observation, these mothers sang a specific snippet of their song (“the B element”), and after hatching, the chicks would repeat this portion of the song to ask their parents for food. The article further explains,

After hatching, the chicks sang this song to beg for food from their parents. The accuracy of their attempt was improved if their mother had sung the song at a slower rate to them when they were just embryos, which indicates the embryos really were paying attention to the songs.

Of all the parts of a fairywren’s song, females sang the B element to their eggs most, up [to] 96 percent of the time.

Other elements, like A, might have been sung as well to provide a contrast for the embryos, possibly allowing them to tease apart various tunes when they finally hatch.

As expected, when researchers played female songs back to superb fairywren embryos, the unhatched offspring showed a stronger heart rate response to element B than any other part.

While the authors try to tie this into an evolutionary story about birdsongs, such complexity is an obvious fingerprint of an intelligent Designer, the Creator God of the Bible.

While the authors try to tie this into an evolutionary story about birdsongs, such complexity is an obvious fingerprint of an intelligent Designer, the Creator God of the Bible. But this story reminded me of more than just God’s incredible design in something as humble as a tiny wren. It made me think of another article the Answers News team discussed along with this item: Biden’s top priority for a second term: Abortion rights.

These baby birds, as unhatched embryos, are actively learning birdsongs. That’s a clear sign of their life (or “birdhood,” you might say). They aren’t just clumps of cells in an egg—they’re clearly birds learning how to be birds even before their instincts tell them it’s time to chip out of that egg and start singing for their supper. If we can recognize the “birdhood” of unhatched birds, how much more should we be able to recognize the personhood of an unborn child (who is also learning language while in the womb), made in God’s image and of infinitely more value than a wren (Matthew 10:31).

And yet we live in a culture that refuses to acknowledge (or refuses to care about) the personhood of the unborn. Just as God’s creation makes it obvious there’s a Creator and yet sinners suppress the truth in unrighteousness, so God has made it obvious that an unborn child is a human life and yet sinners suppress that truth in unrighteousness too! Actually, we live at a time when many value animals above human beings! That’s what happens when people are in total rebellion against God.

As believers, we need to be doing all we can to defend the unborn in a culture so calloused to their personhood.

As believers, we need to be doing all we can to defend the unborn in a culture so calloused to their personhood. If you’d like to be better equipped to speak up for life, I encourage you to check out a special playlist on Answers TV that was put together in honor of National Sanctity of Life Day (January 22). If you’re not an Answers TV subscriber, you can enjoy that playlist with a free seven-day trial (after that, our streaming platform is only $4.99 a month or $39.99 for a year). Find that playlist and more at Answers.tv.

Get More Answers on Answers News

This item was discussed Wednesday on Answers News with cohosts Rob Webb, Dr. Georgia Purdom, and Patricia Engler. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum, broadcast on our Answers in Genesis YouTube channel, and posted to Answers TV. We also covered the following topics:

• Archaeological find confirms the Bible.
• Is Genesis a myth?
• “Earliest” fossil of skin uncovered.
• And more!

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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.