Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 39, Issue 2, February 1990, Pages 369-374
Animal Behaviour

Early acquisition of song in the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(05)80883-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Young zebra finch males were tested for their ability to acquire species-specific song before reaching independence. Song copies developed by males kept with their fathers up to 35 days posthatching were as complete as those of males that remained in contact with their fathers until day 100, when song crystallization has finished. Young males can learn the entire song during a brief period early in life. This early acquisition phase and its influence on further song learning at a later age make it likely that males in the field will develop a song similar to that of their fathers.

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    Present address: Institut für Verhaltensbiologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Haderslebener Str. 9, D-1000 Berlin 41, West Germany.

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