Collaborative Research: Mechanisms of Behavioral Innovation in Brood Parasitic Birds

Songbirds are well-known for their complex vocalizations that, much like language in humans, are typically learned from their parents. But how do young that naturally lack contact with parents recognize members of their own species? Here, the researchers investigate the genomic, neurobiological and behavioral mechanisms of species recognition employed by avian brood parasites, birds whose eggs are laid into nests of strangers and whose chicks are raised by the foster species. By identifying the password--a species-specific vocalization that attracts and initiates the neural mechanisms by which young brood parasites identify individuals of their own species--the researchers will be able to understand how young that naturally lack contact with parents recognize members of their own species. This work will contribute broadly to scientific progress in the fields of learning and memory, behavioral plasticity and behavioral evolution. This research program involves training of students and young scientists, including a postdoctoral fellow and a diverse group of students, including many underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students in integrative behavioral, neurobiological, and genomics research techniques. The participants will deliver public seminars and exhibits at Sylvan Heights Bird Park in North Carolina and at several non-profit organizations in New York City.

The suite of behavioral innovations underlying social parasitism, including avian brood parasitism, must include mechanisms to recognize conspecifics without prior exposure during early development. This project will tap into the developmental knowledge already gathered from parental songbirds, including the zebra finch model system, and focus the ontogenetic study on a closely-related, but obligate parasitic finch, the pin-tailed whydah. The aim is to test the general hypothesis that differences in neural architecture or processing between parasitic and parental birds reflect evolutionary tinkering, whereby novel traits arise by modification of existing networks and structures. Through experimentally manipulated exposure of juvenile parasites to songs, the prediction will be tested that conspecific recognition relies on hearing a salient species-specific character, termed the password. Detailed quantitative patterns of transcriptional change following password exposure, and throughout developmental landmarks, will be collected to identify neurogenomic signatures associated with the timing and induction of conspecific recognition and to more broadly define the molecular basis of experience-dependent or developmentally driven neuroplasticity. Critical acoustic and behavioral components of these data will be collected during a newly developed field course in Puerto Rico. Acoustic and video data will be made freely available through DataOne, a public data repository, and genomic data will be deposited into the National Institutes of Health's NCBI short read archive.