Female songbirds identify and prefer conspecific male songs. Songs are an important cue for species discrimination. Bengalese finches are domesticated species and their male songs seem to have evolved as they comprise more complex sequences and tonal sounds than the songs of their wild ancestors, white-rumped munias. Previous research suggested that the degeneration of song functionality for species identification may have been one of the factors that promoted the evolution of song complexity in domestic strains. We hypothesized that female responses to conspecific songs have changed between the two strains: white-rumped munias could distinguish songs of their own species more readily than Bengalese finches. Because the song discrimination is affected by developmental experiences, we used adult female Bengalese finches and white-rumped munias reared with or without exposure to songs of their own strains (i.e., socially-reared or untutored). To evaluate their song discrimination, we quantified zenk-labeled cells in the auditory areas after exposure to song stimuli, either with songs of own strains or those of other strains. Socially-reared white-rumped munias exposed to songs of Bengalese finches showed lesser zenk expression than munias exposed to songs of their own strain. However, there were no significant differences among the groups in Bengalese finches. The result suggests that white-rumped munias could distinguish songs of their own species more strictly than Bengalese finches.

雌性鸣禽识别并喜欢特定的雄性歌曲。歌曲是区分物种的重要线索。孟加拉雀是驯化的物种，它们的雄性歌曲似乎已经进化，因为它们比它们的野生祖先白腰雀的歌曲包含更复杂的序列和音调。先前的研究表明，用于物种识别的歌曲功能的退化可能是促进国内菌株歌曲复杂性进化的因素之一。我们假设雌性对同种歌曲的反应在两种品系之间发生了变化：白臀雀比孟加拉雀更容易区分自己物种的歌曲。因为歌曲辨别力受发展经历的影响，即，社会抚养或未受过教育）。为了评估他们的歌曲辨别力，我们在暴露于歌曲刺激后量化了听觉区域中zenk标记的细胞，无论是使用自己品系的歌曲还是其他品系的歌曲。社会饲养的白臀 munias 暴露于孟加拉雀的歌曲中，表现出比暴露于自己品系歌曲的 munias更少的zenk表达。然而，孟加拉雀的各组之间没有显着差异。结果表明，白腰雀可以比孟加拉雀更严格地区分自己物种的歌曲。