Female budgerigars found to judge 'virtual males' by their contact calls.

Parrots are famed for their ability to mimic sounds and now researchers have used 'virtual mates' to discover if female parrots judge male contact calls when deciding on a mate. The research, published in Ethology, challenges traditional understandings of the difference between birds 'songs' and 'calls'.

Parrots are among the few species of bird to have developed the ability to quickly learn and mimic new sounds, but the evolutionary reason for this ability is little understood. The Californian based team used a species of budgerigar to discover if the ability to mimic new calls is linked to courtship and mate choice.

"We wanted to know whether a female budgie pays attention to a male's call when she first meets him and if she uses that information when deciding to mate," said senior author Dr Nancy Burley from the University of California. "If so the question is: are females attracted to males that produce calls similar to her own?"

The problem facing the team was that because budgerigars are quick vocal learners a male presented with a female will quickly adapt their call to imitate the female. For the study to be successful it was crucial that the female was able to hear and evaluate the male's call before the male had the chance to adapt his call.