Male canaries discriminate among songs: Call rate is a reliable measure

In the domesticated common canary (Serinus canaria) a particular phrase called phrase A elicits a high level of sexual responses in females. We know that during male/female or male/male encounters, emitters produce longer phrases A. The aim of this study was to test song influences on adult male canaries and especially the influence of phrases A. We used two sets of conspecific songs (the first set containing phrase A, the second set lacking phrase A), and one set of heterospecific songs (control set). Responses of eighteen males were measured using calls rate. We observed that numbers of calls emitted during silence are similar, regardless to the songs we played back. Conversely, we observed that calls rate is significantly lower during playbacks of phrases A than during the two other types of song playbacks. This suggests that males may discriminate among songs, especially between phrases A and other types of conspecific phrases.