Highlights•Birds can show cultural behaviour across multiple behavioural
contexts.•Evolutionary theory is a useful tool to examine cultural change over time.•I review …

Publisher Summary This chapter outlines the evolution of geographic variation in birdsong.
Studies of vocal signals in birds offer potentially useful opportunities for empirical tests of the …

Twenty years ago Pepperberg set out to discover whether large-brained, highly social
parrots were capable of mastering complex cognitive concepts and the rudiments of …

Studies of animal culture have not normally included a consideration of cetaceans.
However, with several long-term field studies now maturing, this situation should change …

Blue whale songs provide a measure for characterising worldwide blue whale population
structure. These songs are divided into nine regional types, which maintain a stable …

Variation in vocal signals among populations and social groups of animals provides
opportunities for the study of the mechanisms of behavioural change and their importance in …

Birdsongs are always part of larger set of sound signals. Every bird uses a repertoire of calls
for communication. Calls are shorter and simpler than songs, with a much larger range of …

Vocal learning is well known among passerine and psittacine birds, but most data on
mammals are equivocal. Specific benefits of vocal learning are poorly understood for most …

The last several decades of research on avian cognition have revealed surprising parallels
between the abilities of birds—most notably corvids—and great apes. Parrots, albeit far less …

Bird song often varies geographically within a species; when this geographic variation has
distinct boundaries, the shared song types are referred to as song dialects. How dialects are …