Zebra finches are some really cool birds. Now, I did not know much about these birds but boy are they some amazing creatures. These birds have some of the best if not the best auditory memory of the entire animal kingdom. According to a recent study conducted at UC Berkeley, zebra finches are able to memorize and differentiate between 50 different individuals in their flock. Think about that. One zebra finch is able to compartmentalize 50 different calls from its flock. That is honestly mindblowing to me. I know there exist other species with some awesome traits but this is cool.
The study suggests/shows that individual zebras can pick one another out from the flock in a very specific way and they are able to do so in a similar way to us. They are able to recognize and map timbre in calls. This allows a single zebra finch to memorize these individual calls for up to months. So, as a neuroscientist, this begs the question, are zebra finches an example of highly sophisticated socially communicative organisms? I would argue that to be true. I am really curious now to see their auditory wiring and how much of their brain is used up for audition or if it is all the same. Something about the neural connections here intrigues me.
*edit I found a paper on zebra finch auditory system but it is quite dense*
[avian auditory thalamic nucleus does contain a higher proportion of neurons]
For those curious, I have linked the paper below. But as a quick recap, this was a two-part experiment where zebra finches were trained to distinguish between different birds and their calls. They were placed in a chamber to identify sounds and given a reward when they made the correct ID. However, instead of me trying to explain the methodology I will link a video for you to watch.
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