Female zebra finches learn to prefer more than one song and from more than one tutor

Birdsong is a culturally transmitted mating signal: young birds learn specific variants of species-specific song(s) from conspecific models. Female song preferences are also learned early in life, but despite the potential functional implications of such learned mating preferences, we still have a poor understanding of when and from whom females learn. This also holds true for one of the foremost models of vocal learning, the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata. Both male and female zebra finches memorize their tutorʹs song motif: as adults, males will sing and females prefer their tutorʹs song. We here tested whether juvenile females would also learn to prefer the songs of several individuals, and whether the timing and propensity of song preference learning were condition dependent. Young females raised and cross-fostered in experimentally manipulated brood sizes were exposed to several model songs: first their foster fatherʹs song until nutritional independence (days 0–35) and then as subadults to playbacks of two different tutor songs (days 35–65). As adults, females preferred all three model songs over unfamiliar songs. There were no interaction effects between femalesʹ early rearing conditions (brood size) and preference strength for the different tutor songs. An additional live-tutored group had equally strong preferences for the foster fatherʹs song (only heard before day 35) as the tape-tutored females. The combined results demonstrate that subadult females memorize several song types during different times of development and as adults prefer these songs over unfamiliar songs. These findings imply that multiple song learning needs to be taken into account for avian mate choice studies even in species that lack song type repertoires but show individual differences in song.