Richard Mooney’s grandfather, a mechanical engineer, couldn’t imagine why birds would be useful for understanding the human brain. “The same way that taking apart a one-cylinder lawn mower can prepare ...

This is a zebra finch song. Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any ...

But the unions don’t always work out. Scientists want to know the underlying factors. Before a pair of zebra finches can settle down to start a family, they have to find a place to live. Whether ...

Juvenile zebra finches undergo an intense learning process to master their songs, practicing up to 10,000 times a day. Despite initially producing disorganized vocalizations, young males persist in ...

To understand the brain signals involved in birds' intrinsic desire to learn their songs, a research team from Duke University, North Carolina, closely studied how zebra finches practice their ...

Recently in Nature(399, 466– 470, 1999), Anthony Leonardo and Mark Konishi of Caltech reported that zebra finches retain a surprising ability to modify their songs in response to auditory ...

This songbird, the zebra finch, is already an established animal model in several biological fields. Other than songbirds, only a few animals, such as whales and humans, can learn vocalizations.