Abstract
Zebra Finches have become the most widely researched bird species outside of those used in agricultural production. Their adoption as the avian model of choice is largely down to a number of characteristics that make them easy to obtain and use in captivity. The main point of our paper is that the very characteristics that make the Zebra Finch a highly amenable laboratory model species mean that it is by definition different from many other passerine birds, and therefore not a good general model for many research areas. The Zebra Finch is likely to be particularly resilient to the effects of stress early in life, and is likely to show great flexibility in dealing with a wide variety of conditions later in life. Whilst it is tempting for researchers to turn to species such as the Zebra Finch, that can be the focus of manipulative work in the laboratory, we caution that the findings of such studies may confound our understanding of general avian biology. The Zebra Finch will remain an excellent species for laboratory work, and our paper should help to direct and interpret future work in the laboratory and the field.
Highlights
Not one of the big six model species that have been so influential in modern biology through extensive laboratory research [1], the Zebra Finch is one of the most researched avian species over the past few decades
We focus on the response of adult Zebra Finches to variation in diet and the effects of climate on development and reproduction, and review how the overall life history of the Zebra Finch fits into existing paradigms
Species that can be researched in controlled conditions, and on which an accrued research program provides a broad understanding, will remain an extremely valuable part of the 21st century biology
Summary
Several of the best examples of the costs of compensatory growth have come from the Zebra Finch [35], and future work in this, and other birds will hopefully be able to tell us whether Zebra Finches are extreme in this regard (due to their special ecology and diet), or whether they do represent birds more generally Given both these delayed costs to offspring, and the parental optimisation of lifetime reproductive output (which should favour the tailoring of clutch size to the resources available), it does seem intuitive to have expected a differential investment across highand low-quality diets. Even amongst the estrildid finches, they are apparently unique in being able to rear offspring without provisioning them with insects [5]
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