Female canaries display to songs of early isolated males

Abstract

We tested the sexual responsiveness of female canaries,Serinus canaria, to two sets of different types of male conspecific songs. In each set, three of the male songs had been recorded in a young bird which was isolated at an early age from conspecifics. Each bird was recorded during three stages of the song ontogeny (early plastic songs, late plastic songs and crystallized songs). We used copulation solicitation displays (CSD) as an index of female sexual response. Playbacks were performed during a period of natural sexual responsiveness of the females to song. We demonstrated that, in both experiments, very weak sexual displays of female canaries were recorded to the two stages of ‘isolate’ plastic songs. Each of the two different types of ‘isolate’ crystallized songs elicited high levels of CSD. These levels are not significantly different from the adult domesticated control song. Taken together, these results suggest that even isolate songs may convey sexual information. We discuss prominent acoustic features that must be present to ensure female sexual responses.