Testing the flexibility of song type bout duration in the chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs

Article Abstract:

A new study of the chaffinch species Fringilla coelebs tests the theory that playback of songs from a male songbird's own repertoire causes it to alter the relative frequencies of its song types.

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Testing female chaffinch song preferences by operant conditioning

Article Abstract:

Laboratory-reared female chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs, were tape-tutored just after fledging to determine whether their song preferences can be influenced by operant conditioning. Results revealed that song preferences by female chaffinches vary individually for songs within the species-specific range. Moreover, operant conditioning with song early life has very little effect in forming preferences.

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Song type switching in the chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs: timing or counting?

Article Abstract:

Chaffinches have a limited repertoire ofbetween one and six songs, and song types can be recognized easily. Observations of chaffinches indicate that temporal limitation is the mechanism for song type switching. Longer bouts of song tended to be more common among birds with two song types than those chaffinches that had three types. The bout length appears to be influenced by contexts, and there appear to be difference intrinsic mechanisms that are linked to song types.

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