Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 25, Part 1, February 1977, Pages 215-220
Animal Behaviour

Development of song and reinforcing effects of song in female chaffinches

https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-3472(77)90084-7Get rights and content

Abstract

Eight autumn-caught female chaffinches were injected with testosterone in their first spring. They were allowed to perch on a particular perch to produce a playback of a normal, male song. Both the course of their song development and the reinforcing effect of the playback song were comparable to that shown by a group of similarly-treated males.

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Cited by (15)

  • Learning and cultural transmission in chaffinch song

    2015, Advances in the Study of Behavior
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    They then found that male chaffinches responded more strongly to the more typical exemplars, replicating recent findings in another precise song learner, the swamp sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) (Lachlan, Anderson, Peters, Searcy, & Nowicki, 2014). There have been very few studies examining female chaffinch receivers to date (Kling & Stevenson-Hinde, 1977; Riebel & Slater, 1998b; Leitão et al. 2006) and as yet we know little about how learning and cultural transmission affect female preferences and male–female communication. However, the combined evidence from those studies that have been done, and from work on chaffinch reproductive behavior (Hanski & Laurila, 1993; Sheldon, 1994a, 1994b; Sheldon & Burke, 1994), provide important clues for future work on females' roles in song evolution.

  • Sexual Differentiation of the Vocal Control System of Birds

    2007, Advances in Genetics
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    The most pertinent examples of obligate sex‐specific vocalizations are the songs of songbird species such as the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) or the orange bishop (Euplectus franciscanus) in which only the male is singing (Arai et al., 1989; Nottebohm and Arnold, 1976). Further examples are the songs of the reproductive period of many songbirds of the temperate zones such as the chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) or the European robin (Erithacus rubecula) that are only produced by the males (Hoelzel, 1986; Kling and Stevenson‐Hinde, 1977). Females of these species may sing simpler versions of the males' song outside of the breeding season, that is, in a nonreproductive context (Hoelzel, 1986).

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Present address: Department of Psychology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, U.S.A.

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