@article {52580,
	title = {Introductory whistle is sufficient for early song recognition by golden-crowned sparrow nestlings},
	journal = {Animal Behaviour},
	volume = {133},
	year = {2017},
	month = {Jan-11-2017},
	pages = {83 - 88},
	abstract = {<p>Many songbird species have a predisposition to learn conspecific songs, suggesting song learning may be guided by an innate auditory template. Evidence for such a template includes preferential response to conspecific song in early life, even before song learning begins. A prime example of an innate cue for selective song learning is the introductory whistle of white-crowned sparrows, Zonotrichia leucophrys. The songs of its sister species, the golden-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia atricapilla, also contain an introductory whistle, which differs in structure from that of white-crowned sparrows. Here we tested the ability of nestling golden-crowned sparrows in a sympatric population to discriminate between conspecific and heterospecific songs based on introductory whistles alone, prior to the onset of song learning. Golden-crowned sparrow nestlings responded with more chirps to playbacks of conspecific whistles than to heterospecific (white-crowned sparrow) whistles, and they responded similarly to full conspecific songs and conspecific whistles alone. We suggest that the introductory whistle alone is sufficient for song recognition in the golden-crowned sparrow. We discuss similarities and differences in the role of the introductory whistle between these sister taxa, and how this divergent song phrase may share a role in species recognition in both sister species. Identifying the cues underlying song recognition prior to song learning could be key to understanding the evolution of behavioural isolation between closely related songbird species.</p>
},
	keywords = {acoustic template, song learning, species recognition, whistles, Zonotrichia},
	issn = {00033472},
	doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.09.018},
	url = {http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347217303056},
	author = {Hudson, Emily J. and Shizuka, Daizaburo}
}
@article {50504,
	title = {Good tutors are not dear enemies in song sparrows},
	journal = {Animal Behaviour},
	volume = {129},
	year = {2017},
	month = {Jan-07-2017},
	pages = {223 - 228},
	abstract = {<p>Birdsong is the most widely studied example of vocal learning outside human language and shares important parallels with it, including the importance of social factors during development. Our understanding of how social factors affect song learning, however, remains surprisingly incomplete. Here we examine the possible role of aggressive interactions in determining song \&lsquo;tutor\&rsquo; choice in song sparrows, Melospiza melodia, a songbird in which individuals display song learning strategies ranging from learning primarily from one tutor, to learning a few songs each from a number of tutors. We test two hypotheses: the competition hypothesis suggests that young birds learn more from tutors with whom they compete especially intensely and predicts that tutees will respond with high aggression to tutor songs. In contrast, the cooperation hypothesis suggests that song learning reflects a cooperative relationship between the tutor and the tutee and predicts that tutees will respond with low aggression to tutor songs. In a playback experiment we found that birds responded more aggressively to songs of their tutors than they did to songs of strangers and that the strength of aggressive response correlated positively with how much they had learned from that tutor. These results provide the first field evidence for the hypothesis that young males preferentially learn their songs from adult males with whom they compete most intensely during the song-learning phase, and perhaps afterwards.</p>
},
	keywords = {aggression, communication, cooperation, social learning, song learning},
	issn = {00033472},
	doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.05.026},
	url = {http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347217301719},
	author = {Ak{\c c}ay, {\c C}a{\u g}lar and Campbell, S. Elizabeth and Beecher, Michael D.}
}
