Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 33, Issue 4, November 1985, Pages 1293-1300
Animal Behaviour

Song learning in zebra finches: some effects of song model availability on what is learnt and when

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(85)80189-5Get rights and content

Abstract

This study indicates that captive male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) normally learn their song during the juvenile period between independence from their parents and sexual maturity, from whatever suitable song model is available. Virtually nothing is learnt from the father before this time. Hybrid songs may develop if birds are removed from the father and given a new song model before song learning is complete. The absence of a song model during the juvenile stage appears to postpone the sensitive phase and abnormal song is produced until a suitable model becomes available. Normal song will then develop, even in a sexually mature adult. This indicates that experience and not age is the important factor determining the timing of the sensitive phase for song learning in zebra finches.

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Cited by (300)

  • Experience selectively alters functional connectivity within a neural network to predict learned behavior in juvenile songbirds

    2020, NeuroImage
    Citation Excerpt :

    Tutor song memorization occurs within a single restricted developmental phase, or critical period (CP), during which tutor experience has profound and persistent effects on the brain and behavior. The “open” of the CP for tutor song memorization, occurring around post-hatch (P) day 30 (Eales, 1987, 1985; Roper and Zann, 2006), likely depends on neural maturation events that enable learning to commence (London, 2017). In contrast, the CP “close,” after which a zebra finch male can no longer memorize additional songs, depends on the process of tutor song memorization, which is thought to reflect tutor experience-dependent remodeling of the underlying neural circuitry to shift the balance from plasticity to stability.

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Present address: Department of Zoology and Marine Biology, University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

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