How does a starling’s voice box work?

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I’ve seen lots of videos about starlings being excellent mimics ([most recent for your enjoyment is a starling outside a UK police station](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5lTu04tsOx/?igsh=OHJqYjE1OGpuZGph)) but how do they actually do it? What is it about their voice boxes that means they can make sounds you’d expect could only come from a machine or multiple voices together?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Birds have 2 independent voice boxes so they can literally make 2 sounds at once! The organ is called the syrinx and unlike our voice box at the top of our throat they have 2 just after the airway splits to the left and right lungs.

[Here’s a cool BBC radio show by beatboxer Beardyman talking about it](https://youtu.be/OTgolOc-BzU)

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