Music feels deeply human. Every culture has rhythm, beats, and instruments—especially drums. But what if humans aren’t the only species that can create music?
In this episode, we explore a remarkable discovery involving palm cockatoos, large black parrots from northern Australia. Scientists found that these birds don’t just make noise—they manufacture tools and use them to drum in steady, rhythmic patterns, much like human musicians.
Male palm cockatoos carefully break off sticks or shape hard seed pods, hold them in one foot, and repeatedly strike hollow tree trunks or branches or a window bird feeder. Researchers analyzed over 130 drumming sequences from 18 different males and discovered that the beats were not random. Instead, the birds produced regular, predictable rhythms, a defining feature of human music (shown clearly in Figures 1 and 2 of the study).
Even more striking, each bird had its own drumming style. Some drummed faster, others slower, and some mixed tempos—but each individual was consistent over time. This is similar to how human musicians develop recognizable personal styles. The graphs on page 3 show these individual “signatures” clearly.
Most drumming performances happened when females were nearby, suggesting the behavior plays a role in courtship. Unlike human music, though, this drumming is usually a solo performance, not a group activity. That difference may offer clues about how rhythm and music first evolved—possibly starting as individual displays before becoming the shared, social experiences we know today.
This research challenges the idea that musical rhythm is uniquely human and suggests that the roots of music may lie much deeper in our evolutionary history.
