Morninglight: you may be interested in my theories concerning plumage characteristics being responsible for birdsong.
My thesis is based on Olivier Messiaen's unpublished treatise: Conical bills and tonal metamorphasis of the Ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis). In this work, the author's premise is that the shape of the bill predetermines the bird's call (described as a wailing booolsheet, booolsheet).
I have spent my life's work examining the more unusual bills in a range Aves. Of particular interest is the decurved nature of curlews, in particular that of the Slender-billed curlew Numenius tenuirostris. My thesis is that the shape and colour of this bird's bill predetermines it to produce a call describing that very shape. A decurved bill therefore should produce a decurved sound (i.e. one which falls in pitch). After much research in the town of Druridge (where this bird occurs in some numbers), I concluded that my thesis is true - the bird indeed has a falling call (yooooo-hoooo-eeer-iyam best describes it). Of greater significance is the fact that the call is a pure sine wave. If you examine the flanks of the bird, you will notice a sine-wave shape.
I hope you realise the significance of my discovery - which is very similar to your own. It is that a bird's plumage predetermines its call.
As a simple example, I offer for your perusal the Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus. The enclosed image illustrates the obvious - that the bands on the birds flanks predetermines it to the well-known song (Cuck-oo, Cuck-oo). A spectral dimorphational analysis using advanced ideographic projection equipment (known as a Dimensional Array) provides a Janeway co-efficient (in simple terms, a sonogram) of 94%, which shows a pattern on the screen in exactly the same shape and contour of the lines on the bird's flanks.
As a fellow scientist, you will immediately be struck by the significance of my discovery. I can offer you any number of corollaries should you wish.
Peter
