SONG AND CALL LEARNING IN WILD ZEBRA FINCHES IN SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA

Sons of wild zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, were studied for three breeding seasons at a colony in south-east Australia to determine if they learnt their fathers' songs and distance calls. Sons, but not fathers, were captured and placed temporarily in an aviary located within the nest bushes of the colony during or after the sensitive phase for song learning (35-65 days); songs and calls were recorded at or after day 100 and the birds released. Distance Calls and the elements that constituted the song phrases of 40 sons and their 20 fathers were recorded and compared in matching tests; sons were also matched with controls whom they encountered during the sensitive phase. Some song elements could match by chance alone so it was necessary to distinguish those matching scores due to chance from those higher scores that indicated a possible tutor-pupil relationship. Likely tutors for 24 sons were identified: 17 were the sons' own fathers, four were controls and two may have learnt from either. Aviary confinement isolated sons from their fathers' tuition so that the younger the sons that were confined, the lower their matching scores with the father. In the only family that spanned three generations, song phrases were transmitted with good accuracy. The Distance Call, which also formed an element in the song phrase, was learnt from the father by 72% of sons. Songs and Distance Calls were individually stereotyped over intervals of many months. Opportunities in nature for song learning from the father are discussed. © 1990 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.