Both auditory and visual signals are important to elicit avian courtship behaviour. The analysis of such signals has recently been strongly facilitated by the use of video and audio techniques. It has already been shown that male Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata) show preferences to video images of conspecifics compared with heterospecifics and emit directed song towards live pictures of conspecific females. There is no experiment as yet to show whether Zebra Finches can also recognize intraspecific cues from videos, for example discriminate their mate from an unknown conspecific male or female. Zebra Finches were trained to choose between two live images from two video cameras, which were alternatively displayed on a 100 Hz CRT monitor by hopping on one or the other of two perches within the experimental cage. Our results show that most Zebra Finches are able to solve this task after one day of learning, the preference for one of the video images rising steadily. The birds easily distinguish between the live picture of a Zebra Finch of the opposite sex and an empty cage. The choice between an unknown female and an unknown male was more difficult, but was also learned by males and females. In another experiment, Zebra Finches had to choose between an unknown Zebra Finch female and their own mate. All males preferred the unknown female over their mate. An additional experiment indicated that the choice of the males is dependent mostly on visual, not auditory cues. In contrast, females mostly preferred their mate, and their choice was affected by manipulation of auditory cues.

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