Sex differences in vocal learning in birds

Young females pick up songs much faster than males but are not so versatile later on.

Abstract

A young songbird develops its songs by imitating adults¹, just as human infants acquire speech, listening to and memorizing adult songs during an early sensitive phase and then practising its vocalizations until they match the memory formed earlier². Here I investigate whether patterns of song learning differ between the sexes among northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis), one of a few temperate species in which both sexes sing, rather than just the males. I find that females learn the same number of songs as males but in less than one-third of the time; however, auditory experience is not essential for males to develop their songs, whereas it is necessary for females to do so.