High standards of female songbirds could be driving their mates to evolve
Hearing longer love songs from songbirds in your backyard? Chalk it up to sexual preference – and high standards. New research on songbirds from graduate students Cristina Robinson and Kate Snyder in the lab of Nicole Creanza, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Evolution@Vanderbilt member, suggests that females, who are choosing males with the most elaborate songs as their potential partners, are influencing male songbirds to evolve toward learning (and practicing) songs throughout their lives – an evolutionary occurrence previously believed to be mainly a result of changes in a bird’s environment, breeding season, or migration. The study appeared in the journal eLife.