The influence of visual stimuli on song tutor choice in the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata

Abstract

Young male zebra finches, given a choice of two song tutors belonging to different colour morphs during their sensitive phase for song learning, learned mainly from that belonging to the morph of the birds that reared them. When given only one song tutor, of a different morph from their parents, they were more likely to delay learning until after the normal sensitive phase or use elements in their song that were used by the father in his song. In mate choice tests, most young males preferred, a female of the same morph as that of the male from which they had learnt their song, but some did not do so, suggesting that song tutor choice and sexual imprinting are not manifestations of the same learning process.