Invasive parasites in the Galápagos Islands may leave some Darwin’s tree finches singing the blues. The nonnative Philornis downsi fly infests the birds’ nests and lays its eggs there. Fly larvae ...

Male zebra finches learn their song by imitating conspecifics. To stand out in the crowd, each male develops its own unique song. Because of this individual-specific song, it was long assumed that ...

Galápagos finches use their beaks to crush seeds and sing songs, so what happens to their musical trills when their beaks change to respond to new menus available under drought? Jeffrey Podos and ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Sophisticated birdsong follows strict grammatical rules, much like human sentences. But what happens when birds can’t hear themselves sing? A new international study of ...

Complex learning processes like speaking or singing follow similar patterns. Using the example of zebra finches, researchers have investigated how young birds imitate the courtship songs of their ...

Zebra finches are a prominent model system for vocal learning and auditory system function, yet little is known about the functional development of the auditory system. Here, the authors convincingly ...

In studying animal communication, it’s hard to know whether animals react instinctively to the vocalizations of others or ...