Because the oscines are the most speciose group of living birds, the use of learned vocalizations for mate competition and attraction has been hypothesized to have facilitated speciation (Marler and Tamura 1962; Slabbekoorn and Smith 2002; see Ricklefs [2003] for an alternative view).

Oscine songbirds are capable of vocal learning. This has led to a detailed study of the sophisticated set of neural nuclei responsible for the central control of the song. Oscines also show a high degree of complexity at the level of the vocal organ. For this reason, we dedicate a section to the description of the oscine syrinx.

Specifically, the suboscine/oscine split is based on the presence versus absence of specialized intrinsic syringeal musculature in oscines (in addition to a critical contribution of learning to vocal development).

Oscine

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Adj

Noun

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