Motor constraints on vocal development in a songbird

• Published in: Animal behaviour Vol. 51; no. 5; pp. 1061 - 1070
• Main Author: PODOS, JEFFREY
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kent Elsevier Ltd 01.05.1996; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animal ethology; Aves; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Melospiza georgiana; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Vertebrata; Acoustic communication; Learning; Laboratory study; Vertebrata; Song; Acquisition process; Vocal system; Sound production; Development; Aves; Motricity
• ISSN: 0003-3472; 1095-8282
• DOI: 10.1006/anbe.1996.0107

The development and evolution of bird songs may be influenced by the mechanisms that underlie sound production, although the nature of this influence is not well understood. Here it is shown experimentally that vocal development in songbirds can be affected by physical limits on how birds are able to sing. Young swamp sparrows, Melospiza georgiana, were presented with conspecific song models modified such that rates of syllable repetition were increased above normal rates. Imitations of these songs were inaccurate in ways that indicated motor constraints on vocal performance and that did not indicate perceptual or memory-based constraints. Some song imitations were deficient in trill tempo and/or syllable composition, and others were produced with a species-atypical ‘broken’ syntax, in which pauses were interspersed within songs. These results illustrate how the development and evolution of trill structure can be limited by motor constraints on vocal production, and also identify a possible mechanism for the evolution of a novel form of song syntax.