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

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 fr...