Relationship between Song Repertoire and Age in the Canary, Serinus canarius

✍ Scribed by Nottebohm, Fernando ;Nottebohm, Marta E.

• Book ID: 115138479
• Publisher: Wiley (Blackwell Publishing)
• Year: 2010
• Weight: 504 KB
• Volume: 46
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-3573
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1978.tb01451.x

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

We recorded the song of six male canaries during their first and second year of life to see if we could detect systematic age‐related changes. Soundspectrographic analysis revealed that many syllables from the previous year were omitted and many new ones were added. There was a significant increase in syllable repertoire during the second year. The proportion of single‐element syllables increased between year 1 and year 2. These results indicate that neural pathways responsible for song learning in canaries remain plastic in adulthood. We suggest that the larger song repertoires of older ♂♂ confer a reproductive advantage by acting as a more potent stimulus on ♀♀.