• bird song
• calls
• communication
• electrophysiology
• zebra finch

The Adult Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) have a crystallised song and different types of calls. However, the exact number of the calls and their function is not completely understood. The pattern of calls might be associated with a specific context and with the kind of relationships between two interacting birds.
The aim of this project is: to test the correlation between an experimentally controlled context and the pattern of the calls-songs elicited.
The acoustic signals produced by the same pairs of Zebra finches exposed to three different conditions were recorded. Each pair of birds was first kept in a small sound box, then two couples were placed together in a larger aviary and finally nest material was added. The birds were equipped with a miniaturised microphones tied on their back, in order to ascertain the identity of the bird emitting the sound. Video recording was used to correlate the birds’ behaviour with vocalizations. The males were implanted with an electrode suitable for Local Field Potential (LFP) recording placed in Nucleus Robustus of Arcopallium (RA). This nucleus is involved in the modulation of the learned features of songs and calls and in perceptual processing.
Quantitative analysis of temporal association between individual calls reveals that are used in bidirectional communication: precise patterns of association of calls are established into the pair. The type of relationship existing between two birds, for instance “members of a couple” or “dominance hierarchy between males”, and the environmental context, for example “being in a favourable breeding condition” are likely to be described by patterns of temporal associations of calls combinations.
It was possible to describe the change of activity of the RA during songs\calls production through the analysis of the LFP signal. Moreover the LFP showed a repeatable signal after several days, this demonstrate the suitability of this device for studying the development of long processes, for instance song learning.