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A Bird's Voice Box

We all speak and sing by vibrating vocal cords located in our larynx, or voice box.

A bird’s voice box is called a syrinx, from the Greek for “pan pipes,” and produces sounds without having the vocal cords of mammals.

The sound is produced by vibrations of the walls of the syrinx, which even enable some species of birds, such as parrots, to mimic human speech.