Scientists find building blocks of birdsong's 'spectacular diversity'

Scientists in France say they have discovered the building blocks of the incredible diversity of birdsong. A team analysed more than100,000 songs from 3,000 bird species and revealed that they are all composed of eight fundamental types of sound that the researchers call "motifs". Each song, they say, is made up of combinations of these motifs - three types of trill, three types of whistle, chaotic notes and harmonies. Birdsong is one of the natural world's most sophisticated forms of sound-based communication.