As with many bird species, only male zebra finches are able to learn the species-typical song from a tutor, usually the father. Over a period of three months, the young males initially only listen to ...

A male zebra finch chick hatches from its egg. Around 3-4 weeks later, it begins to make its first croaking sounds – these do not have much in common with its later song. But by the time it is three ...

William Feeney receives funding from Australian Geographic and the Australian National University. Species must reproduce to survive, and animals have found unique ways of achieving this. For some, ...

If songbirds could appear on "The Masked Singer" reality TV competition, zebra finches would likely steal the show. That's because they can rapidly memorize the signature sounds of at least 50 ...

The zebra finch subspecies T. guttata castanotis, native to Australia, is the progenitor of all common laboratory populations of zebra finch. These birds weigh 10–15 grams and are sexually dimorphic: ...

Asst. Prof. Sarah London has long appreciated zebra finches for their unique learning characteristics. The males learn from another male tutor, but their ability to memorize the tutor’s song is ...

Male zebra finches learn their song by imitating conspecifics. To stand out in the crowd, each male develops its own unique song. Because of this individual-specific song, it was long assumed that ...

A new study on songbirds sheds light on the power of social interaction to facilitate learning, insights that potentially apply to human development. The findings, published in Proceedings of the ...

The babbling of zebra finches creates connections in the brain that enable them to memorize the song of their tutor. The picture shows a zebra finch chick (2nd from left) between a female (left) and a ...

Zebra finches program their offspring to prepare for global warming by singing to eggs before they hatch. In especially hot areas, finch parents make a special call to incubating eggs, basically ...

Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 26, No. 2 (JUNE 2012), pp. 76-84 (9 pages) Songbirds have emerged as attractive model systems in many areas of biological research. Notably, songbirds are ...