Data from: Parental influence on begging call structure in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata): evidence of early vocal plasticity

Begging calls are signals of need used by young birds to elicit care from adults. Different theoretical frameworks have been proposed to understand this parent–offspring communication. But relationships between parental response and begging intensity, or between begging characteristics and proxies of a young’s need remain puzzling. Few studies have considered the adjustment of nestling begging features to previous experience as a possible explanation of these discrepancies. In this study, we tested the effect of a heterospecific rearing environment on individual developmental trajectories of the acoustic structure of nestling begging calls. Fifty-two zebra finch chicks were fostered either to Bengalese finch or to zebra finch parents, and begging calls were recorded at several stages of nestling development. Acoustic analyses revealed that the development of the spectral features of the begging calls differed between experimental conditions: chicks reared by Bengalese finches produced higher pitched and less broadband begging calls than chicks reared by conspecific parents. Differences were stronger in males than females and were not explained by differences in growth rate. We conclude that nestling begging calls can be plastic in response to social interactions with parents.

乞食叫声（begging calls）是幼鸟用以唤起亲代抚育的需求信号。目前学界已提出多种理论框架，用以解析这种亲代-子代交流行为。但亲代应答与乞食强度之间的关联，或是乞食特征与雏鸟需求替代指标之间的关联，仍未得到合理解释。鲜有研究将雏鸟乞食特征对过往经历的可塑性调整，视作解释这些矛盾结果的潜在路径。本研究探究了异种饲养环境对雏鸟乞食叫声声学结构个体发育轨迹的影响。本研究将52只斑胸草雀（zebra finch）雏鸟寄养于白腰文鸟（Bengalese finch）亲代或同种斑胸草雀亲代的巢中，并在雏鸟发育的多个阶段录制其乞食叫声。声学分析结果显示，不同实验条件下雏鸟乞食叫声的频谱特征发育轨迹存在差异：由白腰文鸟抚育的雏鸟，其乞食叫声音调更高且频带更窄，相较于同种亲代抚育的雏鸟。该差异在雄性个体中更为显著，且与生长速率差异无关。综上，雏鸟的乞食叫声可通过与亲代的社会互动产生表型可塑性。