Voco-auditory behavior in the Bengalese finch: A comparison with the zebra finch

The zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata castanotis) has been a 'de facto standard' in neuroethological study of song learning. A large number of exciting findings in the neurobiology of learning and memory based on song learning behavior in this species. However, to guarantee the generality of these findings, research should also be conducted on a comparison species with closely related phylogeny and somewhat different behavior. Here we suggest using the Bengalese finch (Lonchura striata var. domestica) as such a comparison species. In this paper, we compared several aspects of the auditory-vocal behavior of these two species and pointed out important differences between them. Analyses of such differences would lead us to a deeper understanding of the neuroethology of birdsong.