Animal Behavior: Song Learning out of the Box

Abstract

Our understanding of songbird song learning is derived mainly from two approaches: observations in the field and experiments in the laboratory. A clever new study combines elements of both and highlights how exposure to song can catalyze imitative learning.

Novel methodology to assess vocal learning in nature

“…In fact, I expected the opposite of the conclusions of Podos (2018): that artificial songs might be preferred to natural ones. Firstly, the artificial songs were played about as often as the most frequent vocalizers in the species.…”

“…In the end, both Podos (2018) and I were correct: there are likely both acoustic and non-acoustic factors at play here. The birds did not copy the artificial songs as much as would be expected by repetition alone.…”