Female Bengalese finches recognize their fathers song as sexually attractive

Birdsong is an important communication signal used in mate choice. In some songbirds, only males produce songs while females do not. Female birds are sensitive to inter- and intra-species song variation. Some aspects of female song preference depend on developmental experiences. For example, in Bengalese finches and zebra finches, adult females prefer the song to which they were exposed early in life, such as the fathers song. However, it is unclear whether such song preference in females is sexually motivated. The purpose of our study is to test if female Bengalese finches recognize their fathers song as sexually attractive. We measured copulation solicitation displays during playbacks of the fathers song vs. unfamiliar conspecific songs and found that across individuals, the fathers song elicited more displays than other songs. In addition, we analyzed if a birds response to a given song could be predicted by the level of similarity of that song to the fathers song. The results suggest that preference for the fathers song in this species is actually relevant to mate choice. Although more precise control is necessary in future studies to elucidate the process of preference development, our results imply the significance of early-life experience in shaping female song preference.