Contraband Zebras

CONTRABAND ZEBRAS

Red bull may give you wings, but, discontent with just a few avian appendages, I bought two adult male Zebra Finches instead. I’ve named them Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson- they’re usually collectively referred to as simply “The Detectives.” As with most birds, they’re very noisy, which doesn’t seem so bad until I explain that I’m keeping them secretly in a dormitory with a no-pets rule. Finches, fortunately, have a relatively quiet call compared to, say, parrots or parakeets. When singing together, they almost sound like muffled monkeys. They also need a lot less attention and interactive playtime. Thus I decided they’d make good dorm pets and purchased a pair at the nearest pet store.

One of the things I noticed almost immediately is their very distinct social behavior. They sing to each other very often for a variety of reasons. I’m still learning all of their little quirks and habits, but there are definite patterns to the types and timing of their calls. For example, they will, without fail, whistle, chirp, and “honk” very loudly in the mornings, as soon as the sun comes up. I’ve researched this behavior on my own for several reasons. Aside from the initial general curiosity, I also wanted to look in to possibly controlling this behavior in the interest of getting more sleep on weekends.

And so began my researching and experimenting. I first found out from several online pet-advice websites and blogs that birds are extremely photosensitive. Apparently, if I covered the birds’ cage with a towel or other opaque cloth, they wouldn’t notice the sunrise, and I could therefore postpone their morning chorus. I tested this, and it worked. Over the course of a few days I discovered it applied universally- I could cover the cage at any point in the day, and because of the decrease in light intensity, The Detectives’ noise and activity levels dropped almost immediately. I now had a solution to my problem, but not an answer to my original question- why do the finches sing in the morning? I also had a new question now – do they really sing in the morning, or is it a response to increased light levels?

On a website called “trib” that hosts science articles, I found out that one theory scientists have found support for is that male birds sing in the morning as a territorial warning to other birds. According to the website, every morning, birds will reaffirm ownership over their territory. They sing in the morning because during the morning hours, there will be less wind and heat to interfere with their songs. This makes sense, but doesn’t yet answer my last question about my Detectives. I guess if I had more time, I could do more experiments to see if the Detectives would still sing if I removed the opaque cloth while it was very warm around the cage. I could also turn on a weak fan to simulate a windy day to see if the singing would persist even when it would inevitably not carry.

In conclusion, birds are like miniature dinosaurs and are awesome. More on the misadventures of the Detectives in a couple weeks! Thanks for reading!

Posted by: Jonathan Flash (1)

sources:
http://trib.com/features/science/article_0386ede4-e3aa-5be1-818b-39d220a10b1f.html

(Also, Wikipedia)

EDIT:

Wow, nine comments. I feel like a celebrity on one of them short motion pictures on the TV. Thanks for reading my blog and voicing your support, everyone. If anyone would like to make a donation to show their appreciation, please contact me via email with your credit card number and PIN and I would be glad to help alleviate your bank account of any unnecessary funds.

Okay, sorry about that. I do appreciate everyone taking the time to read my post and comment. There were a few recurring ideas in the comments that I wanted to address:

1. Almost every post mentions the birds' circadian rhythm in relation to the morning singing.
2. Many people suggested noting the morning song and how it differs specifically from other calls that The Detectives make.
3. Some people voiced concern for the detectives in relation to:

• the size of the cage and the territorial morning call conflicting.
• using a towel too often and how that could affect the Detectives' biological clocks.

Now, I mentioned in the original post that I could cover the cage with a towel to quiet the singing at any point in the day. One thing I didn't mention as straightforwardly is that when I do this, the birds will start singing when I remove the cloth again. This observation seems to support the hypothesis that the birds are responding to a change in light intensity rather than the time of day. However, I have noticed something very interesting relating to this: when I change the light levels by removing the towel to "simulate morning," the Detectives sing the exact same song they do in the morning with the exception of one 2-second portion of whistled notes in the song. While this is a really intriguing observation, I have no clue what it means. More on that later, I guess.

Many people agreed that the specific type of song the detectives sing in the morning is of significance. I agree that it's definitely a very unique song compared to the sounds they make when they seem playful or scared. It's too early to say whether they use the song in other contexts. I'll keep my ears open and try to see if they use the morning song (or portions of it) at other times of day. If they do, it may relate to the stimulation they're getting from eating, bathing, grooming, or flying around, and that information could be important in decoding the true meaning of the detectives' morning song.

Finally, there were some comments expressing concern about the finches. In terms of using the towel to quiet the birds, virtually the only time I cover the cage is at night and when I clean their cage once a week (finches have terrible night-vision, so covering the cage means you can put your hand inside and clean it without them freaking out). Even still, though, I don't think cage-covering affects the circadian rhythm very much. My hypothesis is that the darkness, makes them hesitant to be as active, mostly because of the aforementioned lack of night vision.

Another concern was the cage being too small for a bird species that makes territorial calls every morning. I should first explain that finches are very social birds and will get depressed if they're alone in a cage. Unless they're hand-rearing a single finch from hatching, finch owners are always advised to have 2-3 or more finches per cage so the animals don't get lonely. As for the territorial calls, I didn't fully explain the articles I'd read properly. After looking through a few different articles about morning birdsong, I feel I can better define its theorized purpose now: The morning song, instead of being territorial per se, is usually meant to re-establish existing territory lines between males with the ultimate purpose of attracting a female to that territory. So I don't think the detectives will be having any border conflicts anytime soon. They're probably just horny, is all.

Poisted by Jonathan Flash (1)