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The hermit thrush may well be the Beyoncé of the bird world thanks to its tuneful melodies, a study has revealed.

Scientists have discovered that the North American songbird sings in 'harmonic series', a pattern of pleasing-sounding notes commonly used in popular human music.

By studying how birds sing, experts hope to learn how much of human musical heritage is shaped by biology, compared to culture.

Ultimate songbird? Scientists have discovered that the hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) pictured, sings in harmonic series, which is a component in popular human music. A harmonic series stems from a base note and is followed by notes that increase in pitch, based on multiples of the original note

A harmonic series stems from a base note and is followed by notes that increase in pitch, based on multiples of the original note.

Scientists found that around 70 per cent of the bird's songs followed this pattern, Smithsonian reported. 

Male hermit thrushes (Catharus guttatus) sing between six and 10 types of song, which tend to be high-pitched and fast, beginning with a long whistle, the study revealed.

Emily Doolittle, a composer at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and Tecumseh Fitch, a biologist at the University of Vienna, analysed 144 different song types from 14 male hermit thrushes. 

Experts found that 70 per cent of the hermit thrush's (pictured) songs were based on notes in a harmonic series, making them similar to human compositions

'Listening to the songs full speed, they are very attractive, but we didn't have any inkling that we would hear the harmonic series in them,' Dr Doolittle said.

But after they slowed them down, the harmonic series patterns became clear and statisticians analysed the bird's choices of pitch in the song.

Around 70 per cent of the songs analysed followed harmonic intervals, compared to just five per cent which seemed to include random notes.

Scientists are interested in why the bird sings in this way, because the bird's vocal tract is not specially designed to produce the specific notes in the series.

They believe that female hermit thrushes may pick their mate by his harmonic accuracy – or the combination of notes may simply be easier for them to remember, just as they are for humans.

Dr Doolittle emphasised that the birds don't deliberately compose their songs using scales, but noted that other birds also like intervals used in human music.

For example, previous studies have shown that musical wrens use them and domestic chickens favour consonant notes – a combination of notes that sound pleasant when played at the same time.

Dr Doolittle said: 'The harmonic series is a physical phenomenon, not a culturally specific construct, like any scale, so it makes sense that this could be found in songs of a variety of different species.'

She believes that because humans share musical characteristics with other species, there may be something in our shared biology that makes certain note combinations attractive.

The research was published in the journal PNAS.