Design of the Month

Zebra finches mate for life, so choosing the fittest partner is vital. ... Akshat Vyas at City University of New York and colleagues studied how early experience, quality of song and oestrogen levels all affected a female's response to male birdsong.

The team split the finches into four groups. One group had never heard male birdsong before the test, while the remaining groups were each tutored with one of three male songs: complex, simple, or long. The experiment was carried out three times, first when the finches had naturally low levels of oestrogen, because they were not ready to mate, second after artificially raising levels to mimic those normally seen prior to mating, and third, after they [sic] birds were drugged to lower oestrogen levels.