Vocalisation in songbirds and parrots has become a prominent model system for speech and language in humans. We investigated possible sex differences in behavioural and neural responsiveness to mate calls in the budgerigar, a vocally-learning parrot. Males and females were paired for 5 weeks and th...
Budgerigar males change vocal behaviour depending on stages of courtship and reproduction38. We then examined vocal responses of both sexes in experiment 2, keeping the rate of development of the pair bond the same between males and females and allowing for a more stringent test of sex ...
should carefully evaluate factors that may be driving these differences (e.g., housing placement and the frequency and predictability of anthropogenic activities during critical stages of the breeding season). Future research should examine the role of glucocorticoids in reproduction of captive populations...