Male quality and conspecific scent preferences in the house finch, Carpodacus mexicanus
There is increasing evidence that birds use chemical cues in different contexts, and this is changing the traditional view that birds are the only largely olfaction-free vertebrates. We performed a choice experiment to examine whether male house finches exhibit any preferences for the sex of conspecifics when only their chemical cues are available. When exposed […]
Olfactory imprinting as a mechanism for nest odour recognition in zebra finches
Olfactory communication is widespread across the animal kingdom but until recently was believed to be unimportant in songbirds. However, recent studies of zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, have found that fledglings are capable of recognizing their own nest based on olfactory cues alone. This raises the important question of whether this knowledge is learned or innate. […]