ArticlePloS one2014
Captive rearing experiments confirm song development without learning in a tracheophone suboscine bird.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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14 citing papers in PubMed, 67 citations in OpenAlex.
- Insights into Convergent Evolution From Studying Amino Acid Patterns in Independent Lineages of Birds.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Transitions and tricks: nonlinear phenomena in the avian voice.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Vocal convergence and social proximity shape the calls of the most basal Passeriformes, New Zealand Wrens.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Tonality over a broad frequency range is linked to vocal learning in birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Forebrain nuclei linked to woodpecker territorial drum displays mirror those that enable vocal learning in songbirds.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- Faster evolution of a premating reproductive barrier is not associated with faster speciation rates in New World passerine birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Article
- Re-evaluating vocal production learning in non-oscine birds.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Range-wide spatial mapping reveals convergent character displacement of bird song.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Ecological drivers of song evolution in birds: Disentangling the effects of habitat and morphology.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- Evolution of Vocal Diversity through Morphological Adaptation without Vocal Learning or Complex Neural Control.Current biology : CB · 2017Article
- Core and Shell Song Systems Unique to the Parrot Brain.PloS one · 2015Article
- A putative RA-like region in the brain of the scale-backed antbird, Willisornis poecilinotus (Furnariides, Suboscines, Passeriformes, Thamnophilidae).Genetics and molecular biologyArticle
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The origin of vocal learning in animals has long been the subject of debate, but progress has been limited by uncertainty regarding the distribution of learning mechanisms across the tree of life, even for model systems such as birdsong. In particular, the importance of learning is well known in oscine songbirds, but disputed in suboscines. Members of this diverse group (∼1150 species) are generally assumed not to learn their songs, but empirical evidence is scarce, with previous studies restricted to the bronchophone (non-tracheophone) clade. Here, we conduct the first experimental study of song development in a tracheophone suboscine bird by rearing spotted antbird (Hylophylax naevioides) chicks in soundproofed aviaries. Individuals were raised either in silence with no tutor or exposed to standardized playback of a heterospecific tutor. All individuals surviving to maturity took a minimum of 79 days to produce a crystallized version of adult song, which in all cases was indistinguishable from wild song types of their own species. These first insights into song development in tracheophone suboscines suggest that adult songs are innate rather than learnt. Given that empirical evidence for song learning in suboscines is restricted to polygamous and lek-mating species, whereas tracheophone suboscines are mainly monogamous with long-term social bonds, our results are consistent with the view that sexual selection promotes song learning in birds.
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