Dataset for "Beyond Melody: Shared Rhythms in Zebra Finch Song Acquisition"

Dataset for the manuscript: Beyond Melody: Shared Rhythms in Zebra Finch Song Acquisition.

Recent studies have highlighted the rhythmic patterns in the vocalizations of several animal species. Specifically, songbirds have structured rhythms in their vocal production. Whilst it is known that, for example, zebra finches, copy the spectral content of their tutor’s song, little is known about the rhythms. In this study, we analyze the rhythm of 17 male tutors and their 37 male tutees based on inter-onset-elements of motif elements, we find that tutees indeed copy their tutors' rhythm and that these rhythms are most similar between tutors and their respective tutees. This is only true when considering the whole motif sung by a tutee. When checking different subsets of the song motif, i.e. only elements shared between tutor and tutee, or only not shared elements, we find differences in the rhythm. This suggests that the shared rhythm is not merely a result of imitating the temporal properties of copied song units, but is a desired property of any resulting song and that tutees perhaps adjust the rhythm of non-shared intervals, resulting in an overall rhythm that resembles their tutors’. Furthermore, we find that tutees who share all elements with their tutor tend to sing slower and more consistent rhythms, while the more improvisation we see in elements or melody, the more variable rhythms get both in terms of rates and consistency. This might hint at two overall evolutionary strategies: slower consistent rhythms or more novelty in melody. Female choice experiments might be the next step to prove this hypothesis.