Editing Bird vocalization (section)

=== Learning through cultural transmission ===
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= [[File:Zebra finch 1 (7325890448).jpg|210px]] | video1 = [https://www.crowdcast.io/e/bird-behavior/1 “The cultural lives of birds”], [[Knowable Magazine]], February 26, 2022 }}

[[Animal culture|Culture in animals]] is usually defined to consist of socially transmitted behavior patterns ("traditions") that are characteristic of certain populations.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last1=Riebel|first1=Katharina|title=Chapter Six – Learning and Cultural Transmission in Chaffinch Song|date=2015-05-01|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065345415000029|journal=Advances in the Study of Behavior|volume=47|pages=181–227|editor-last=Naguib|editor-first=Marc|publisher=Academic Press|language=en|doi=10.1016/bs.asb.2015.01.001|access-date=2020-01-30|last2=Lachlan|first2=Robert F.|last3=Slater|first3=Peter J. B.|editor2-last=Brockmann|editor2-first=H. Jane|editor3-last=Mitani|editor3-first=John C.|editor4-last=Simmons|editor4-first=Leigh W.|archive-date=2020-01-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200130042440/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065345415000029|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The learned nature of bird song as well as evidence of "dialect"-like local variations have support theories about the existence of [[Animal culture#Avian culture|avian culture]].<ref name="Hyland Bruno">{{cite journal |last1=Hyland Bruno |first1=Julia |last2=Jarvis |first2=Erich D. |last3=Liberman |first3=Mark |last4=Tchernichovski |first4=Ofer |title=Birdsong Learning and Culture: Analogies with Human Spoken Language |journal=Annual Review of Linguistics |date=14 January 2021 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=449–472 |doi=10.1146/annurev-linguistics-090420-121034 |s2cid=228894898 |url=https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-090420-121034 |access-date=23 February 2022 |issn=2333-9683|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Mason"/>

As mentioned [[#Auditory feedback in birdsong learning|above]], bird song's dependence on learning was studied by Thorpe, who found that [[Common chaffinch|chaffinches]] raised in isolation from their first week of life produce highly abnormal and less complex songs compared to other chaffinches.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thorpe|first=W. H.|title=The Learning of Song Patterns by Birds, with Especial Reference to the Song of the Chaffinch Fringilla Coelebs|date=2008-06-28|journal=Ibis|volume=100|issue=4|pages=535–570|doi=10.1111/j.1474-919x.1958.tb07960.x|issn=0019-1019}}</ref> This suggested that many aspects of song development in songbirds depends on tutoring by older members of the same species. Later studies observed canary-like elements in the song of a chaffinch raised by [[Domestic canary|canaries]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Slater|first=P. J. B.|date=1983-04-01|title=Chaffinch Imitates Canary Song Elements and Aspects of Organization|journal=The Auk|volume=100|issue=2|pages=493–495|doi=10.1093/auk/100.2.493|issn=0004-8038}}</ref> evidencing the strong role of tutors in the learning of song by juvenile birds.

Similar chaffinch song types (categorized based on their distinct elements and their order) were observed to cluster in similar geographic areas,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Slater|first1=P. J. B.|last2=Ince|first2=S. A.|date=1979|title=Cultural Evolution in Chaffinch Song|journal=Behaviour|volume=71|issue=1/2|pages=146–166|issn=0005-7959|jstor=4534000|doi=10.1163/156853979X00142}}</ref> and this discovery led to hypotheses about "dialects" in birdsong. It has since been postulated that these song type variations are not [[dialect]]s like those we found in human language. This is because not all members of a given geographic area will conform to the same song type, and also because there is no singular characteristic of a song type that differentiates it from all other types (unlike human dialects where certain words are unique to certain dialects).<ref name=":0" />

Based on this evidence of learning and localized song types, researchers began to investigate the social learning of birdsong as a form of cultural transmission.<ref name="Mason"/><ref name="Hyland Bruno"/> The behavior patterns constituting this culture are the songs themselves, and the song types can be considered as traditions.

==== Dopamine circuits and cultural transmission ====
A recent study has shown that a dopamine circuit in zebra finches may promote social learning of bird song from tutors.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tanaka|first1=Masashi|last2=Sun|first2=Fangmiao|last3=Li|first3=Yulong|last4=Mooney|first4=Richard|date=2018|title=A mesocortical dopamine circuit enables the cultural transmission of vocal behaviour|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=563|issue=7729|pages=117–120|doi=10.1038/s41586-018-0636-7|issn=1476-4687|pmc=6219627|pmid=30333629|bibcode=2018Natur.563..117T}}</ref> Their data shows that certain brain areas in juvenile zebra finches are excited by the singing of conspecific (i.e. same-species) tutors and not by loudspeakers playing zebra finch song. Additionally, they show that dopamine released into the HVC aids in the encoding of song.