Female song in European starlings: the case of non-competitive song-matching

Hausberger, Martine; Black, Jeffrey M.

doi:10.1080/08927014.1991.9525362

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Observations of motor responses to these whistles were also made by Feare (1984) and by Hausberger and Black (1991). Furthermore, experiments on female starlings have revealed particular attention and head movements in response to the playback of such songs .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

State‐dependent hemispheric specialization in the songbird brain

George¹,

Cousillas²,

Richard³

et al. 2005

J of Comparative Neurology

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Lateralization of brain functions is a widespread phenomenon in vertebrates. With the well-known lateralization in the processing of human speech and the parallels that exist between birdsong and language, songbirds are interesting for addressing such questions. In the present study, we investigated the central processing of communicative and artificial sounds in starlings, in an integrative part of the song system: the HVC. Neuronal responses to acoustic stimuli were systematically recorded in both hemispheres while the birds were awake, and then anesthetized, allowing quantitative comparisons of the responses obtained in each situation. The total proportion of responsive sites in the HVC of the left and right hemispheres of all birds revealed a significant predominance of the HVC of the right hemisphere when the birds were awake, whereas a high interindividual variability appeared when the birds were anesthetized. When neuronal responses as a whole were further examined, the responses to each type of stimulus appeared to be nonrandomly distributed over the different situations, and some specialization may appear. The results suggest a complex and state-dependent hemispheric specialization toward behaviorally relevant classes of stimuli. In awake birds, the HVC of the left hemisphere may be more involved in the processing of songs that are used in individual recognition at distance, whereas the HVC of the right hemisphere may deal with long and complex sequences of a song that is involved in short-distance communication, especially between males and females. With birds under anesthesia, this pattern is strongly modified.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

State‐dependent hemispheric specialization in the songbird brain

George¹,

Cousillas²,

Richard³

et al. 2005

J of Comparative Neurology

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“…Obviously, the presence of an adult male is necessary for young to acquire typical click motifs. This is especially interesting as wild-caught females in general do not or less frequently produce them (Hausberger & Black, 1991;Hausberger, Henry, & Richard-Yris, 1995, Pavlova et al Other song features on the contrary appeared to be ''canalized'' by the presence of adults: only the birds with a forced contact with only one adult produced proportions of high frequency elements similar to those of wild adult males. Our results recall of West, King, and Freeberg's (1997) observation that young male cowbirds deprived of direct experience with adult males overproduced some song features that were highly attractive to females.…”

Section: Social Influence On Song Qualitymentioning

confidence: 90%

“…These elements often include rapid frequency modulations (Adret-Hausberger & Jenkins, 1988;Eens et al, 1989Eens et al, , 1992aHausberger, 1997). Click and high frequency motifs are generally found in all wild-caught adult male birds (Adret- Hausberger & Jenkins, 1988;Eens, Pinxten, & Verheyen, 1991a) whereas they can lack or can be far less produced by females (Hausberger & Black, 1991;Hausberger, Richard-Yris, Henry, Lepage, & Schmidt, 1995;Pavlova, Pinxten, & Eens, 2005). The production of click and high frequency motifs is accompanied by different patterns of wing movements specific to male birds (wing-flicking for click motifs and more frequently wing-waving for high frequency motifs (Böhner & Veit, 1993;Eens et al, 1989)).…”

Section: Song Terminologymentioning

confidence: 97%

Adult and peer influences on starling song development

Bertin

Hausberger

Henry

et al. 2007

Developmental Psychobiology

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Adult influence on song development was rarely investigated in complex social settings. We investigated the influence of the young/adult ratio on song learning in European starlings. Starling songs are composed of two categories: whistles and warbling. Warbling includes three parts: complex variable motifs, click motifs, and high frequency motifs. Song learning by young birds raised in group (G birds), in group with adults (GT birds) or in pair with one adult (IT birds) were compared. Song tutor choice, song sharing, and song quality varied with social context. The mere presence of adults in a group was not sufficient for young to develop all adult song features. Only IT birds chose adults as tutors. Social contact with only one adult enhanced acquisition of whistles, click motifs, individuality, and reduced the number of high frequency motifs (adult song features). This study suggests that the adult influence is proportional to young/adult ratio.

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“…In general, song sharing is sex specific in starlings (Hausberger et al 1995a) and female starlings learn their songs from other females (Poirier et al 2004). Females do not sing species-specific song themes (Hausberger and Black 1991;Hausberger et al 1995b), and they tend to direct their song largely towards other females in aggressive contexts (Sandell and Smith 1997). Sex differences in auditory brainstem responses have recently been noted in brown-headed cowbirds, Molothrus ater, which could be the result of different selective pressures on each sex (Gall and Lucas 2010;Gall et al 2011).…”

Section: Sex Differences On Auditory Tasksmentioning

confidence: 97%

Developmental stress impairs performance on an association task in male and female songbirds, but impairs auditory learning in females only

Farrell

Morgan

MacDougall‐Shackleton

2015

Anim Cogn

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In songbirds, early-life environments critically shape song development. Many studies have demonstrated that developmental stress impairs song learning and the development of song-control regions of the brain in males. However, song has evolved through signaller-receiver networks and the effect stress has on the ability to receive auditory signals is equally important, especially for females who use song as an indicator of mate quality. Female song preferences have been the metric used to evaluate how developmental stress affects auditory learning, but preferences are shaped by many non-cognitive factors and preclude the evaluation of auditory learning abilities in males. To determine whether developmental stress specifically affects auditory learning in both sexes, we subjected juvenile European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, to either an ad libitum or an unpredictable food supply treatment from 35 to 115 days of age. In adulthood, we assessed learning of both auditory and visual discrimination tasks. Females reared in the experimental group were slower than females in the control group to acquire a relative frequency auditory task, and slower than their male counterparts to acquire an absolute frequency auditory task. There was no difference in auditory performance between treatment groups for males. However, on the colour association task, birds from the experimental group committed more errors per trial than control birds. There was no correlation in performance across the cognitive tasks. Developmental stress did not affect all cognitive processes equally across the sexes. Our results suggest that the male auditory system may be more robust to developmental stress than that of females.

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Female song in European starlings: the case of non-competitive song-matching

Cited by 24 publications

References 20 publications

State‐dependent hemispheric specialization in the songbird brain

State‐dependent hemispheric specialization in the songbird brain

Adult and peer influences on starling song development

Developmental stress impairs performance on an association task in male and female songbirds, but impairs auditory learning in females only

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