“It’s the migratory birds that have lost female song,” explains Langmore, who was part of the study. “Migrants have a very different pattern of territoriality and pairing than in the tropics. Typically, the male will arrive on the breeding grounds singing his head off, and the females will fly in and listen, and they’ll plunk down on the chosen male’s territory. Then they’ll have a very short breeding season. They just go for it like crazy, and then they leave.”
