Research

Nicole Geberzahn Personal information Publications

Version française sur la page web du LECD

I am interested in functions and the acquisition of song in birds. In many northern temperate zone species only male birds sing and females don’t which is probably associated with the specific conditions that those species have to face (e.g. seasonality, migration).

However, song is not restricted to males and in particular in tropical species singing in females is rather common. Therefore, my research includes both temperate and tropical model species. Vocal learning is restricted to humans, certain marine mammals, bats and three taxa of birds, amongst them the oscine songbirds. In nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos), a temperate songbird, I investigated the song learning process in a species with an extraordinary large vocal repertoire. In blue-capped cordon-bleus (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus) – a tropical estrildid relative of the well-studied zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) – both males and females sing. In this species, I am studying sex-specific differences in the song learning and it’s temporal course.

The dual function of birdsong, mate attraction and territorial defence, has been mainly studied in species with typical sex roles. Typically, females make a larger parental investment, are the limiting sex and can effort choosing their mate, whereas males are competitive and have evolved secondary sexual signals, such as song. It follows that it should be generally the competing sex that uses secondary sexual signals to attract mates and to deter rivals. To test this, I investigated the territorial function of female song in a bird species with reversed sex-roles, the African black coucal (Centropus grillii). In skylarks (Alauda arvensis), a species with typical sex-roles, I am interested in the functional significance of song structure in aggressive signalling.

Current and past research projects

  • Constraints in vocal communication: comparing birdsong of females and males

  • Cultural evolution of birdsong

  • Neurobiological correlates of singing behaviour in the skylark, Alauda arvensis

  • Deciphering learned individual signatures in the acoustic network of a territorial songbird: the skylark Alauda arvensis

  • Territorial function and cultural transmission of song in the skylark Alauda arvensis

  • Song production learning and developement in male and female blue-capped cordon-bleus (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus) and their underlying mechanisms

  • Vocal communication in female African black coucals (Centropus grillii), a species with reversed sex-roles

  • Late song learning and memory activation: factors shaping the composi­tion and the performance of song type repertoires in nightingales (Luscinia mega­rhynchos), PhD-Thesis, supervised by Dietmar Todt and Henrike Hultsch

  • Effects of rearing conditions on mutual mate choice in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) (in collaboration with Marie-Jean Holveck & Katharina Riebel)

  • Noise-dependent variation in the song of blackbirds (Turdus merula) (in collaboration with Erwin Nemeth & Henrik Brumm)