Female songbirds use male song as a cue for species recognition during mate choice, and males acquire these songs from a tutor early in life. Both processes require discrimination of conspecific from heterospecific song.Birdsong elements, such as the swamp sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) syllable shown here, have unique spectral and temporal properties. Auditory neurons are tuned for the spectral and temporal features present in conspecific songs.
Conspecific song preference is the ability songbirds require to distinguish conspecific song from heterospecific song in order for females to choose an appropriate mate, and for juvenile males to choose an appropriate song tutor during vocal learning. Researchers studying the swamp sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) have demonstrated that young birds are born with this ability, because juvenile males raised in acoustic isolation and tutored with artificial recordings choose to learn only songs that contain their own species' syllables.[1] Studies conducted at later life stages indicate that conspecific song preference is further refined and strengthened throughout development as a function of social experience.[2] The selective response properties of neurons in the songbird auditory pathway has been proposed as the mechanism responsible for both the innate and acquired components of this preference.
^Marler, P. and S. Peters. 1977. Selective vocal learning in a sparrow. Science 198:519-521.
^Amin, N., A. Doupe, and F. Theunissen. 2007. Development of selectivity for natural sounds in the songbird auditory forebrain. Journal of Neurophysiology 97:3517.
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Conspecificsongpreference is the ability songbirds require to distinguish conspecificsong from heterospecific song in order for females to choose an...
of both species choose conspecific males in sympatry, but heterospecific males in allopatry (see conspecificsongpreference). The patterns could suggest...
of both species choose conspecific males in sympatry, but heterospecific males in allopatry (see conspecificsongpreference). The patterns could suggest...
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sinapis. Female L. sinapis controls mate choice by engaging only in conspecific mating, while males attempt to mate with either species. This female...
learning of conspecificsongs, and will typically preferentially learn the song form conspecific animals rather than heterospecifics. However, song learning...
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