Auditory and sexual preferences for a father’s song can co-emerge in female Bengalese finches

Abstract

Birdsong is an important communication signal used in mate choice. In some songbird species, only the males produce songs. While the females of those species do not sing, they are sensitive to inter- and intra-species song variations, and the song preferences of females depend on their developmental experiences and/or genetic predispositions. For example, in Bengalese finches and zebra finches, adult females prefer the song to which they were exposed early in life, such as the father's song. In the current study, we aimed to test whether the preference for the father's song, as reported in previous Bengalese finch studies, can be interpreted as a mating preference. For this purpose, the subjects were raised exclusively with their family until they became sexually mature and then tested as adults. We measured copulation solicitation displays during playbacks of the father's song vs. unfamiliar conspecific songs and found that across individuals, the father's song elicited more displays than other songs. In addition, we analyzed if a bird's response to a given song could be predicted by the level of similarity of that song to the father's song. Although the birds expressed more displays to songs with greater similarity to the father's song, the effect was not statistically significant. These results suggest that female Bengalese finches can develop a strong mating preference for the father's song if they are exclusively exposed to the father's song early in life. However, it is not clear if such a preference generalizes to other cases in which birds are exposed to multiple male songs during development. In order to fully elucidate the possible contribution of experience and genetic factors in the development of female song preference in this species, future studies will need more detailed manipulation and control of the rearing conditions, including cross-fostering.