AquaSynth/research/bird-syrinx-golf

Bird Syrinx Golf

This sidequest uses open-licensed bird recordings as a reality check for the graph-native syrinx path. The goal is not to make species-accurate bird impersonations yet. The goal is to force the paired-source syrinx graph to meet clean calls, emit listenable WAVs, and expose which controls currently matter.

Source Set

All references are Wikimedia Commons files, with Commons file pages used as the license/provenance anchor and Commons MP3 transcodes used for robust local decoding. The Korean National Institute of Biological Resources clips are KOGL Type 1 rather than Creative Commons; keep that attribution distinction visible.

id	species	call	author	license	source
common-iora-xc125847	Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia)	song	Sudipto Roy	CC BY-SA 3.0	https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aegithina_tiphia_-_Common_Iora_XC125847.ogg
common-blackbird-1059970	Common Blackbird (Turdus merula)	song	Diana Tudor	CC BY 4.0	https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common_Blackbird_song_(Turdus_merula).ogg
red-footed-falcon	Red-footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus)	typical calls	Bubulcus	CC BY 3.0	https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Falco_vespertinus.ogg
warbling-white-eye-ko	Warbling White-eye (Zosterops japonicus)	call	National Institute of Biological Resources	KOGL Type 1	https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%EB%8F%99%EB%B0%95%EC%83%88.ogg
eurasian-wren-ko	Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)	song	National Institute of Biological Resources	KOGL Type 1	https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%EA%B5%B4%EB%9A%9D%EC%83%88.ogg

Tool

tools/BirdSyrinxGolf downloads the sources, extracts the loudest 1.2 second window, renders a small grid of graph-native Aqua syrinx candidates, and writes:

• reference-clip.wav
• candidate-syrinx.wav
• candidate-syrinx.aqua
• source.json
• report.txt
• run-level summary.md

The generated audio lives under artifacts/bird-syrinx-golf/<timestamp>/, which is intentionally ignored by git.

Clean Reference Run

Run: artifacts/bird-syrinx-golf/20260528T143401133

bird	score	logMelCosine	best coarse control
Common Iora	0.2423	0.2356	freq=1050, high beak opening
Common Blackbird	0.2784	0.3223	freq=1050, high beak opening
Red-footed Falcon	0.2727	0.3004	freq=3000, narrow labial opening
Warbling White-eye	0.3102	0.3692	freq=3000, narrow labial opening
Eurasian Wren	0.2577	0.2081	freq=1050, high beak opening

Interpretation

This proves the current graph source path can render paired-labium syrinx candidates against clean real bird audio. It does not prove the model is good. The search grid is deliberately coarse and mostly static; it cannot yet match call envelopes, syllable timing, pitch sweeps, side-to-side alternation, beak articulation, or turbulence bursts with enough authority.

The useful finding is that the syrinx controls now form an inspectable fitting surface. The next coherent step is not a larger brute-force grid. It is time-varying control curves over the same graph: pressure envelopes, labial tension sweeps, independent left/right gating, beak opening, and possibly tract morphology changes when the reference call has obvious articulatory motion.