Female zebra finches require early song exposure to prefer high-quality song as adults

Song learning in songbirds has been studied extensively in males but not in females. Females prefer songs previously heard, but it is not known whether opportunity for learning during the juvenile period affects the ability of females to judge song quality. We show that early exposure to adult song is required in the development of normal adult female zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata, song preferences. Females were reared in conditions that varied in the exposure to song. As young adults, these females were tested for song preference using a two-choice speaker protocol with unfamiliar song stimuli. Females reared with adult males preferred tutored (normal-quality) song, whereas females reared without adult males were as likely to prefer untutored (abnormal-quality) song as tutored song. All three groups of females preferred conspecific to canary song but showed no preference for songs that were temporally reversed or played forward. Our results suggest that a normally reared female’s preference for songs with more notes and spectral complexity is learned during early exposure to adult males that produce such songs.