Prenatal acoustic communication (eg., parental vocalizations) during embryonic development can program the phenotype (i.e., behavior, morphology, physiology) of the offspring . Previous studies in precocial birds have shown the effect of different quantities of parental vocalizations on the social and cognitive phenotypes. Such phenotypic changes that occur during development, in response to parental anticipatory cues, can prepare the offspring for its postnatal environment by altering its developmental trajectory. For example, in altricial birds like zebra finches, incubating parents vocalize “heat calls” at high ambient temperatures resulting in adaptive changes such as (i) altered growth rates and begging call production after hatching, and (ii) altered nest thermal preference and higher reproductive success as adults. However, the mechanisms of this adaptive developmental reprogramming upon heat call exposure remain unknown. Therefore, the central question of this project is how does heat call exposure drive developmental reprogramming in the embryonic brain of zebra finches?