Reports outline hormones research from Columbia University.

According to recent research from the United States, "Female songbirds use male songs as an important criterion for mate selection. Properties of male songs are thought to indicate the male's quality as a potential mate."

"Song preferences in female zebra finches are known to be influenced by two factors - early auditory experience and the acoustic characteristics of males' songs. Studies often investigate song preferences by priming females with estrogen. However, estrogenic influences on song preferences have not been studied. We investigated the relative influence of early auditory experience, acoustic features of songs, and estrogen availability on song responsiveness in female zebra finches. juvenile female zebra finches were tutored for 10 days with 40 songs per day with one of three acoustically different song types - simple songs, long-bout songs or complex songs. A fourth group of females was untutored. Aside from this brief song exposure, females were raised and maintained without exposure to male songs. During adulthood, females' behavioral responses to the three song types were tested under three hormone conditions - untreated, estradiol-treated and 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione (ATD)treated (to lower endogenous estrogen). Based on the results of our study, four conclusions can be drawn. First, song responsiveness in female zebra finches is strongly affected by minimal early acoustic experience. Second, inexperienced female zebra finches are inherently ...