The Condor
Volume 109, issue 4 (November 2007)
SPECIES DIFFERENCES IN THE SONGS OF THE CRITICALLY ENDANGERED
NICEFORO'S WREN AND THE RELATED RUFOUS-AND-WHITE WREN
VALDERRAMA, SANDRA V.; PARRA, JORGE E.; MENNILL, DANIEL J.
p. 870-877
Gist: songs are different, supporting the idea that these should be
considered distinct species
SONG LEARNING AFTER ISOLATION IN THE OPEN-ENDED LEARNER THE EUROPEAN
STARLING: DISSOCIATION OF IMITATION AND SYNTACTIC DEVELOPMENT
CHAIKEN, MARTHA LEAH; BOHNER, JORG
p. 968-976 (Abstract below)
We performed two studies to test whether the ability of open-ended
learners to acquire new songs as adults depends on their having
learned normal songs as juveniles. European Starlings (Sturnus
vulgaris) were kept in isolation for their first year. In the first
study the birds were housed in a group with a wild-caught adult male
following isolation. The subjects imitated each other but not the wild
male and failed to develop normal phonology or syntax. In the second
study each yearling was housed individually with a wild-caught adult
male following isolation. These subjects developed good phonology and
syntax but copied few or no song motifs from the wild adults. Taken
together, the two studies indicate that starlings are capable of
imitating new motifs and of acquiring species-typical phonology and
syntax after a year of isolation. The contrasting results of the two
studies suggest that imitation and the development of syntax are
independent processes subject to different influences.
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