Data from: ‘Out of tune’: consequences of inbreeding on bird song

The expression of bird song is expected to signal male quality to females. ‘Quality’ is determined by genetic and environmental factors, but, surprisingly, there is very limited evidence if and how genetic aspects of male quality are reflected in song. Here, we manipulated the genetic make-up of canaries (Serinus canaria) via inbreeding, and studied its effects upon song output, complexity, phonetics and, for the first time, song learning. To this end, we created weight-matched inbred and outbred pairs of male fledglings, which were subsequently exposed to the same tutor male during song learning. Inbreeding strongly affected syllable phonetics, but there were little or no effects on other song features. Nonetheless, females discriminated among inbred and outbred males, as they produced heavier clutches when mated with an outbred male. Our study highlights the importance of song phonetics, which has hitherto often been overlooked.鸟类鸣唱被认为是向雌性传递雄性质量的信号。“质量”由遗传与环境因素共同决定，但令人意外的是，目前关于雄性质量的遗传特征如何在鸣唱中体现，相关证据极为有限。本研究通过近交手段调控金丝雀（Serinus canaria）的遗传构成，并探究其对鸣唱输出、鸣唱复杂度、声学特征以及（首次纳入研究的）鸣唱学习的影响。为此，我们构建了体重匹配的近交与远交雄性离巢幼鸟配对组，并在后续鸣唱学习阶段让这些幼鸟接受同一示范雄鸟的教导。近交显著影响了音节的声学特征，但对其他鸣唱特征几乎无影响。尽管如此，雌性仍能区分近交与远交雄鸟：当与远交雄鸟交配时，雌性所产的窝卵数更多。本研究凸显了此前常被忽视的鸣唱声学特征的重要性。