Discovering culture West, King, & White 1 Discovering culture in birds: The role of learning and development

There are 9000 species of birds in the world; this is a report on two of them, cowbirds (Molothrus ater) and starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) Bird, 1999). We note the discrepancy in numbers to put into perspective the task of characterizing culture and social learning in ‘birds ” as a group. But as daunting as the task might sound, the diversity of behaviors and ecologies in birds offers a window on social learning, culture, and evolution that is hard to match. Bird species afford diverse opportunities for comparative analysis at the level of peas in a pod; a taxonomic point at which natural and sexual selection operate (King & West, 1990). Our interest in cultural processes in birds grew out of an interest in birds ’ songs: how songs develop and how they are used. Vocal learning and the transmission of song information across generations have been documented in many species (Freeberg, 2000; Kroodsma & Miller, 1996). Song is used in territorial defense and in the attraction of mates. Moreover, there is no question that birds make use of social and auditory learning to craft their repertoires. It is the nature of the crafting process that appeals to us, especially the need for social interactions to build an inventory of vocalizations an