Early Experience and Plasticity of Song in Adult Male Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata )

Zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) learn song primarily at 35-65 days of age, but birds deprived of experience at that stage may modify their songs later. Experiments on 5 groups examined the effect of varying early social experience on the plasticity of adult song. Major changes of song in adulthood were rare, and new syllables were memorized only in the more socially impoverished groups. Most songs underwent minor changes, in syllable structure or stereotypy, as well as in the addition or deletion of syllables. Two factors appeared to be important in determining the amount of change: the extent of social deprivation that the bird had experienced and, in the case of group-reared birds, the degree of song matching between social companions.