canberrabirds

Blackbird songs: morphic resonance or genetic library?

To: Canberra birds <>
Subject: Blackbird songs: morphic resonance or genetic library?
From: David Nicholls <>
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 01:33:56 +0000
For some reason I've been listening to blackbird songs since the 1950s.  Some 
song patterns last a long time, others seem to change with the latest blackbird 
fashion.

A few years ago I noticed a new pattern I had never heard before, which 
(transliterated) sounds a bit like "I'm a chilli-pop birdie" :-)

I was vaguely watching a re-run of the movie "The Queen" (Helen Mirren) the 
other night, and a blackbird was singing in the background (purportedly at 
Buckingham Palace, but doubtless some other stately home - towards the end of 
the film, when the Queen and Tony Blair were walking in the palace grounds). It 
used exactly the same song phrase.

Since it's unlikely blackbirds have flown from Britain to Canberra in the time 
since the movie was made (2006) it seems to be a case of  Sheldrake's morphic 
resonance.  Either that, or - more likely - there's a large library of songs 
genetically embedded in all blackbirds, and this song happened to be used in 
the UK and here about the same time.

Curious coincidence, either way.

DN


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