The oscine passerines, or 'songbirds', are one of the few animal taxa in which individuals
learn their vocal signals. Recent comparative studies reveal a remarkable diversity of song …

Papers on sexual selection often highlight the incredible diversity of sexually selected traits
across animals. Yet, few studies have tried to explain why this diversity evolved. Animals use …

Literature Cited to accompany Animal Communication, 2e Page 1 Principles of Animal
Communication, Second Edition Jack W. Bradbury and Sandra L. Vehrencamp Chapter 14 …

Our goal in this essay is to review the hypothesis that females choose mates by the
evaluation of male motor performance. We define motor performance as vigour, the ability to …

Song learning is a cognitive task in which juvenile birds acquire, store and use information
about adult song to shape their own song production. Comparative studies show that across …

In urban environments, anthropogenic noise may mask bird song, especially the notes
occurring at lower frequencies (1–2 kHz). Birds living in urban environments may modify …

In species with mate choice, the choosy sex selects its mate based on traits that are thought
to indicate the mate's quality. In several bird species, females prefer males that sing more …

Individuals of some animal species have been taught simple versions of human language
despite their natural communication systems failing to rise to the level of a simple language …

The elaborateness of many bird songs is commonly presumed to have evolved under the
influence of sexual selection by female mate choice. Thus, aspects of acoustic diversity …

Complex birdsong is a classic example of a sexually selected ornamental trait. In many
species, females prefer males with large song repertoires, possibly because repertoire size …