20 Basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits are multi-stage loops critical to motor behavior, 21 but the contributions of individual components to overall circuit function remain unclear. 22 We addressed these issues in a songbird basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuit (the 23 anterior forebrain pathway, AFP) specialized for singing and critical for vocal plasticity. 24 The major known afferent to...

We studied the mechanism of song production in the outbred common or domestic canary (Serinus canaria). The contribution that each side of the syrinx makes to song was investigated by observing the effect of unilaterally occluding the left or right primary bronchus, followed by section of the ipsilateral branch of the tracheosyringeal nerve. In other birds with a bilaterally intact vocal system...

Acoustic frequency (pitch) cues are known to be important in the recognition of conspecific song in a number of songbird species. Mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) and black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) are sympatric over parts of their ranges and their species-typical songs share many features. I examined the acoustic characteristics of song of these two congeners in a region o...

Male songbirds often establish territories and attract mates by singing, and some song features can reflect the singer's condition or quality. The quality of the song environment can change, so male songbirds should benefit from assessing the competitiveness of the song environment and appropriately adjusting their own singing behavior and the neural substrates by which song is controlled. In a...

Birdsong requires complex learned motor skills involving the coordination of respiratory, vocal organ and craniomandibular muscle groups. Recent studies have added to our understanding of how these vocal subsystems function and interact during song production. The respiratory rhythm determines the temporal pattern of song. Sound is produced during expiration and each syllable is typically follo...

As folk songs live largely through oral transmission, there usually is no standard form of a song each performance of a folk song may be unique. Different interpretations of the same song are called song variants, all variants of a song belong to the same variant type. In the paper, we explore how various melody-based features relate to folk song variants. Specifically, we explore whether we ca...

Elucidating the relationship between genetic and cultural evolution is important in understanding speciation, as learned premating barriers might be involved in maintaining species differences. Here, we test this relationship by examining a widely recognized premating barrier, bird song, in a hybrid zone between black-throated green (Setophaga virens) and Townsend's warblers (S. townsendi). We ...

Intradialect variation in the song of 138 male Nuttall’s White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia Zeucophrys nuttalli) was examined using multivariate cluster analyses on both quantitative (frequency and temporal) and qualitative (structural) variables. Mapping of song groups revealed local song clusters with a high degree of spatial overlap and the occurrence of “satellite” males located well outsi...

Little is known about the neural mechanisms that ensure appropriate vocal behaviors within specific social contexts. Male songbirds produce spontaneous (undirected) songs as well as female-directed courtship songs. Opioid neuropeptide activity in specific brain regions is rewarding, at least in mammals, and past studies suggest that the opioid met-enkephalin in such areas is more tightly linked...

In our study population, neighbouring song sparrows typically share two or more of their 6-10 song types. In an earlier experiment, we found that established neighbours typically reply to playback of neighbour-shared song with a different song they share with that neighbour ('repertoire matching'), rather than with the same song ('type matching') or with a nonshared song. In the present experim...