Song Learning in Male and Female Uraeginthus cyanocephalus, a Tropical Songbird Species

Birdsong is a model in a wide range of research areas. Because of a research bias toward species with male-only song production, sex-specific differences in vocal learning processes have been neglected. We conducted an experimentally controlled song-learning study in the laboratory using blue-capped cordon-bleus (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus), an estrildid species with male and female song production. Adult males have larger syllable-type repertoires than females, which might require that males learn from males and females from females in order to develop appropriate sex-specific repertoire sizes. Young birds were housed together with different adult tutors during the song development and with another same age, same-or different-sex juvenile. Although only few birds imitated the song of adults, we detected song learning from same-and opposite-sex adult tutors. Males imitated songs of adult tutors more accurately than females. We found no evidence for song learning before Day 23. We detected sensory learning from adults (separated from the young by a wire mesh) after Day 40 in males but not in females. This might be due to sex-specific differences in the duration of the sensory acquisition phase (shorter in females) or the selectivity to social settings of song learning (higher in females, as they did not accept tutoring through a wire mesh). The song of young birds raised together converged on each other, suggesting an influence of the song of peer on the song development. This study provides a first step in understanding song learning in male and female cordon-bleus.