Quantitative Tools for Examining the Vocalizations of Juvenile Songbirds

The singing of juvenile songbirds is highly variable and not well stereotyped, a feature that makes it difficult to analyze with existing computational techniques. We present here a method suitable for analyzing such vocalizations, windowed spectral pattern recognition (WSPR). Rather than performing pairwise sample comparisons, WSPR measures the typicality of a sample against a large sample set. We also illustrate how WSPR can be used to perform a variety of tasks, such as sample classification, song ontogeny measurement, and song variability measurement. Finally, we present a novel measure, based on WSPR, for quantifying the apparent complexity of a bird's singing.