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Male zebra finches, small Australian songbirds, are not born knowing their song. They learn it from an adult, usually their father, and practise for weeks until they get it right.

Current Biology / Duke University

ScienceMindNature

The story behind the card

The zebra finch is one of the most studied birds in neuroscience because the way it learns to sing resembles the way a baby learns to talk. While still young, a male listens to an adult 'tutor', usually its father, and memorises his song. Soon it starts making quiet, jumbled sounds called subsong, a little like a baby's babbling, and over the next two months it shapes them until they match the memorised model. By about three months old the song is fixed and stays the same for life. Females do not sing. Because this learning is so regular and easy to record, laboratories such as those at Duke University use the birds to study how the brain learns sequences of sounds and movements.

Türkçe oku
Avustralya'da yaşayan küçük bir ötücü kuş olan zebra ispinozunun erkekleri, şarkılarını bilerek doğmaz. Onu bir yetişkinden, çoğunlukla babalarından dinleyip haftalarca çalışarak öğrenir.

Zebra ispinozu, sinirbilimde en çok incelenen kuşlardan biridir; çünkü şarkı öğrenme biçimi bir bebeğin konuşmayı öğrenmesine benzer. Genç erkek, bir yetişkinin, çoğunlukla da babasının şarkısını dinleyip ezberler. Kısa süre sonra “alt şarkı” denen alçak sesli, dağınık sesler çıkarmaya başlar; bu, bebeklerin agulamasına biraz benzer. Sonraki iki ay boyunca bu sesleri, ezberlediği örneğe uyana kadar düzeltir. Yaklaşık üç aylıkken şarkı oturur ve ömür boyu değişmez. Dişiler ötmez. Bu öğrenme çok düzenli ve kolayca kaydedilebildiği için Duke Üniversitesi'ndekiler gibi laboratuvarlar, beynin ses ve hareket dizilerini nasıl öğrendiğini bu kuşlar üzerinde araştırır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Zebra finch
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