Conversations with friends have an ease that is hard to replicate with someone you have just met—often replies come more ...

Discover the brain science behind how birds learn to sing, from song nuclei to social cues and critical learning windows.

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 ...

A new study on songbirds sheds light on the power of social interaction to facilitate learning, insights that potentially apply to human development. The findings, published in Proceedings of the ...

The babbling of zebra finches creates connections in the brain that enable them to memorize the song of their tutor. The picture shows a zebra finch chick (2nd from left) between a female (left) and a ...

Their first vocalizations help young zebra finch males to memorize the songs of adults. When babies learn to talk or birds learn to sing, the same principle applies: listen and then imitate. This is ...

When building a nest, previous experience raising chicks will influence the choices birds make, according to a new study by University of Alberta scientists. The results show that birds that have ...

We all know the adage, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." As we age, our ability to learn new skills, like mastering a foreign language or picking up a musical instrument, seems to fade. The ...

Zebra finches sing a special song to their eggs to warn them about hot weather, and these calls seem to program the hatchlings’ cells to harness energy from food without creating excessive heat. This ...

In the Australian Outback, we follow Mylene Mariette as she sets up an unusual experiment that reveals something extraordinary about the zebra finches battle to survive. When it gets really hot out ...