"Wrens' Remarkable Ability: Teaching Songs to Unhatched Offspring"

Female fairywrens in Australia have been discovered singing to their unhatched eggs, and their offspring learn and repeat parts of these songs after hatching. This behavior has been observed in eight related species and suggests that female birdsong is not an evolutionary mistake but serves an important purpose. The study sheds light on the role of maternal behavior and in ovo learning in avian evolution, challenging historical assumptions about female birdsong and providing insights into the cultural transmission of traits in bird populations.