Can whale song ever resemble birdsong?

Whales and birds live in contrasting environments and create sound in very different ways. Surprisingly, there can be similarities, evident when you compare the songs of the hermit thrush and humpback whale. Though the two vocalisations sound very different to the human ear (the thrush's song resembles a cross between that of a robin and a blackbird, while that of the whale comprises an eerie series of groans, moans and roars), if you look at the way the sounds are clustered together in time, the two are actually quite similar. The linking factor could be that both species sing alone.

In contrast, the social calls of killer whales have a clustering structure like that of human conversation and jazz – a genre of music often dubbed a ‘conversation between musicians’.

Only male humpbacks ‘sing’, perhaps to attract a mate or intimidate rivals.