Some Songbirds Have Brains Specially Designed to Find Mates for Life
Over the past decade, researchers looking into the chickpea-sized brains of finches have discovered
that each sex uses what’s called its sound control system to convert sound waves to social messages and then use them to find mates, kind of how humans use vocal sounds to communicate.
Dr. Woolley’s lab has been looking into the acoustic systems of zebra, bengalese
and long-tailed finches to see how their brains take in and process sounds — learning, performing and analyzing different parts of them to make sense of songs.
“The biggest difference between male and female brains of the same species is found in songbirds,” said
Sarah Woolley, a neuroscientist who studies finches at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute.
That’s something you’re into, right?”
A female finch also learns the songs of her father from a young age, but she doesn’t perform.
“And the females want nothing to do with him.”
When a female’s brain is young and malleable, she tunes into her father’s song, memorizes it
and then stores it as a template for evaluating a mate’s song later.
Young males in this family of feathered crooners learn the song of their father, perfect it and perform it as adults to attract a lifelong mate.
