A new study from the lab of HWNI member Frédéric Theunissen, professor of neuroscience, suggests that zebra finches actually understand the meaning of calls made by other zebra finches, rather than just reacting to them reflexively. The scientists found that zebra finches categorize these calls based on their meaning. The birds made more mistakes distinguishing between calls in the same category — even if they sounded very different — than they did between calls that sounded similar but were in different semantic categories. This indicates that zebra finches have a mental representation of the meaning of these calls. Zebra finches are a model for human speech learning, and this study provides insight into their cognitive functioning. The study was led by research associate Julie Elie and published in Science.
November 7, 2025
A mating pair of male (left) and female zebra finches. Credit: Julie Elie/UC Berkeley