Bird song learning in an eavesdropping context

• Published in: Animal behaviour Vol. 73; no. 6; pp. 929 - 935
• Main Authors: Beecher, Michael D., Burt, John M., O'Loghlen, Adrian L., Templeton, Christopher N., Campbell, S. Elizabeth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kent Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2007; Elsevier; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Ltd
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animal cognition; Animal communication; Animal ethology; Aves; Biological and medical sciences; Birds; eavesdropping; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Melospiza melodia; Ornithology; passerine; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; social learning; song acoustics; song learning; song repertoire; song sparrow; vocal communication; Melospiza melodia; passerine; song acoustics; song repertoire; social learning; song sparrow; eavesdropping; song learning; vocal communication; Acoustic communication; Learning; Context; Animal communication; Vertebrata; Song; Acquisition process; Sound production; Aves
• ISSN: 0003-3472; 1095-8282
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.10.013

Bird song learning is a major model system for the study of learning with many parallels to human language development. In this experiment we examined a critical but poorly understood aspect of song learning: its social context. We compared how much young song sparrows, Melospiza melodia, learned from two kinds of adult ‘song tutors’: one with whom the subject interacted vocally, and one whom the subject only overheard singing with another young bird. We found that although subjects learned from both song models, they learned more than twice as many songs from the overheard tutor. These results provide the first evidence that young birds choose their songs by eavesdropping on interactions, and in some cases may learn more by eavesdropping than by direct interaction.