Canaries Sing Well Despite Poor Tutors

The way birds learn to sing is of interest to scientists because it offers clues to understanding how humans learn to talk. Young birds, like children, must hear their parents' vocalizations if they are to develop normal song patterns. Juvenile birds that grow up in the absense of birdsong develop abnormal songs. The same is true of children, if a child grows up in the absense of speech, they develop only the most basic verbal skills.

Researchers Sandra Belzner and Stefan Leitner of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology recently conducted an experiment to determine just what it is about hearing birdsong that young birds benefit from. They started out by establishing a group of birds that had poor singing skills. The birds in this group were isolated from adult male canaries as they grew up. These canaries developed abnormal vocalizations. When the group had their own young, Belzner and Leitner investigated how the vocalizations of their young developped.