Humans have been long fascinated by bird song and the cacophony of other avian sounds — from coos and honks to quacks and peeps. But little is known about how the unique vocal organ of birds — the syrinx — varies from species to species or its deeper evolutionary origins. A trio of recent studies is changing that. The studies include high-resolution anatomical scans of syrinxes from hummingbirds and ostriches — the world’s smallest and largest bird species — and the discovery that the syrinx and larynx, the vocal organ of reptiles and mammals, including humans, share the same developmental programming.