@article{rose_scofield_wenstrom_stennette_shank_ball_2024, title={Male and female red-cheeked cordon bleus sing similar yet individualistic songs}, volume={155}, ISSN={["1520-8524"]}, DOI={10.1121/10.0025236}, abstractNote={Birdsong is an excellent system for studying complex vocal signaling in both males and females. Historically, most research in captivity has focused only on male song. This has left a gap in our understanding of the environmental, neuroendocrine, and mechanistic control of female song. Here, we report the overall acoustic features, repertoire, and stereotypy of both male and female Red-Cheeked Cordon Bleus (Uraeginthus bengalus) (RCCBs) songs in the lab. We found few sex differences in the acoustic structure, song repertoire, and song stereotypy of RCCBs. Both sexes had similar song entropy, peak frequency, and duration. Additionally, individuals of both sexes sang only a single song type each and had similar levels of song and syllable stereotypy. However, we did find that female RCCBs had higher song bandwidth but lower syllable repertoires. Finally, and most strikingly, we found highly individualistic songs in RCCBs. Each individual produced a stereotyped and unique song with no birds sharing song types and very few syllable types being shared between birds of either sex. We propose that RCCBs represent a promising species for future investigations of the acoustic sex differences in song in a lab environment, and also for understanding the evolutionary driving forces behind individualistic songs.}, number={3}, journal={JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA}, author={Rose, Evangeline M. and Scofield, Avery J. and Wenstrom, Autumn M. and Stennette, Katherine A. and Shank, Benjamin D. and Ball, Gregory F.}, year={2024}, month={Mar}, pages={1909–1915} }
 @article{stennette_fishbein_prior_ball_dooling_2023, title={Sound Order Discrimination in Two Species of Birds–Taeniopygia guttata and Melopsittacus undulatus}, volume={137}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85150665423&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1037/com0000340}, abstractNote={Recent psychophysical experiments have shown that zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata-a songbird) are surprisingly insensitive to syllable sequence changes in their species-specific motifs while budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus-a psittacine) do much better when tested on exactly the same sounds. This is unexpected since zebra finch males learn the order of syllables in their songs when young and sing the same song throughout adulthood. Here we probe the limits of this species difference by testing birds on an order change involving just two syllables, hereafter called bi-syllable phrases. Results show budgerigars still perform better than zebra finches on an order change involving just two syllables. An analysis of response latencies shows that both species respond to an order change in a bi-syllable motif at the onset of the first syllable rather than listening to the entire sequence before responding. Additional tests with one syllable omitted or doubled, or with white noise bursts substituted for syllables, indicate that the first syllable in the sequence has a dominant effect on subsequent discrimination of changes in a bi-syllable pattern. These results are surprising in that zebra finch males sing their full motif syllable sequence with a high degree of stereotypy throughout life, suggesting that this consistency in production may not rely on perceptual mechanisms for processing syllable order in adulthood. Budgerigars, on the other hand, are quite sensitive to bi-syllable order changes, an ability that may be related to useful information being encoded in the sequence of syllables in their natural song. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).}, number={1}, journal={Journal of Comparative Psychology}, author={Stennette, K.A. and Fishbein, A. and Prior, N. and Ball, G.F. and Dooling, R.J.}, year={2023}, pages={29–37} }
 @article{rose_haakenson_stennette_patel_gaind_shank_madison_ball_2022, title={Neuroendocrine and behavioral response to testosterone-induced female song in canaries (Serinus canaria)}, volume={250}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85126658251&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1016/j.physbeh.2022.113782}, abstractNote={Male song in songbirds is a critical and elaborate signal for mate attraction. In many species female listeners respond to male song both behaviorally and physiologically (e.g. copulation solicitation displays and production of the immediate early gene ZENK in auditory regions). It is becoming increasingly well known that females in many species also sing. However, in common lab species, such as canaries (Serinus canaria), female song is limited and has been primarily studied in the context of administering of exogenous testosterone (T) to increase song rate and length. In this study we addressed to what extent female canary songs are masculinized by the administration of exogenous T based on the behavioral and physiological responses of avian receivers. Specifically, are T induced female songs sufficient to elicit courtship behaviors and auditory ZENK expression in female listeners? We found that female songs after 3 weeks of exogenous T were significantly longer and more complex than female songs after 12 weeks of exogenous T. Additionally, we found that playback of 3-week T song significantly increased sexual response behaviors and the expression of ZENK in the auditory brain regions of female listeners. Finally, we conclude that extended periods of T do not necessarily maintain the masculinization of female song.}, journal={Physiology and Behavior}, author={Rose, E.M. and Haakenson, C.M. and Stennette, K. and Patel, A. and Gaind, S. and Shank, B.D. and Madison, F.N. and Ball, G.F.}, year={2022} }