Next time you hear a bird singing, stop for a second to listen. Even the most common birds can do amazing things.

The cardinal, for instance, has the range of a piano, though higher on both ends. And he can span it in a tenth of a second. No human can come close.

The wood thrush can sing one note, a different note on top of that, and trill them both independently. It’s like a soprano duet in one 2-oz animal!

How can they do these incredible things? The secret is their voice box.

Our larynx has one chamber. Theirs, called the syrinx, has two. Ours sits in our throat; theirs, at the base of their trachea. At that location, each chamber has access to a lung.

In this way, the most accomplished bird singers can control each side of their voice box separately, even take small breaths in one side while singing from the other, to keep their song continuous.

If that weren’t enough, some birds know up to 1,000 different songs.

You may remember from a previous EarthDate that for most of Earth’s history, animals couldn’t hear sounds—or make them. So it’s particularly impressive that birds have developed this ability.

In fact, one of the ways we know that ancestors of modern birds lived through the asteroid extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs is that we’ve discovered fossils from before the impact with a voice box similar to those of today.

The syrinx is one of nature’s greatest hits. It may be an oldie, but it’s a goodie.