📝 SummarXiv

Abstract

Evolution has shaped animal bodies, yet to what extent biomechanical devices provide constraints and opportunities across different behaviors remains unclear. In birds, quiet breathing operates at a resonance of the respiratory biomechanics, but song, a behavior thought to be shaped by strong sexual selection, requires much higher breathing rates. Combining physiological recordings with a nonlinear biomechanical model, we show in canaries (Serinus canaria) that song production drives the system into a nonlinear regime that broadens the frequency range of amplified responses. This enhancement encompasses all syllabic rates, with an average magnification of ~94% of the theoretical maximum. Our results show that birds breathe and sing at a resonance, revealing that optimization strategies can be shared across behavioral states and extend to sexually selected displays.