FINCHforum

I have a juvenile zebra, male. I'm trying to figure out when his song is finished being established...or when he has finished going through puberty as the link I will post explains. The reason I ask is because I am trying to manipulate him to sing like the finches in the room with him, the finches on the you tube videos I play, or any other finch than his father which I am keeping in a separate room. It sounds horrible but I just cannot handle two birds with this horrific honking sound...not a song, that this male makes. I have listened to countless videos to try and find something similar to see who the adult male/father picked up his "song" from. I found nothing. I've raised hundreds of zebras/societies/finches, and have never had this issue before where I can't endure the song of a bird. So....this juvenile is starting to try to sing. He already has a screeching that he does...trying to vocalize. I'm worried he already has the propensity towards his fathers...honk! I'm trying to manipulate it with videos. I'm open to any ideas...and I want to know how long before they finish going through puberty and the father is no longer an influence on him...as he is now on my dining room table, not the ideal place.
Wikipedia says: Male Zebra Finches begin to sing at puberty, while females lack a singing ability.[4] This is due to a developmental difference, where in the embryo, the male Zebra Finch produces estrogen, which is transformed into a testosterone-like hormone in the brain, which in turn leads to the development of the nervous system for a song system. Their songs begin as a few disjointed sounds, but as they experiment, they match what they sing to the memory of their fathers' song, and they rapidly mature into full-fledged songs. During these formative times, they will incorporate sounds from their surroundings into their songs, also using the songs of other nearby males for inspiration.

I can't really help you with your question, but I would love to hear a video clip of your male's "honking song" if you have the capability of recording him somehow. My male also makes what I would describe as a honking noise, and was curious to see if it's at all similar. Lol

I have always thought of zebras song as a form of a honking sound, which is one of the reasons I do not keep them, as well as, being aggressive. Sometimes, my owl finches, which are in the poephila species, make a honking call, but it is kind of cute and not obnoxious, unless all of them do the same sound at once. Then, it gets fairly loud.

I have Society's who I conditioned to sing like my favorite male Society. His song is very pretty, so I always kept him in a cage next to any fledges, so they would hear his song. Now, all my male Society's sing like our favorite, appropriately named, "Mozart"!

It's funny you mention honking because we call ours "honkers" on occasion as some of their little vocalizations are honk-ey. Mostly when they're excited.

I'd ensure he's separated from the dad so he can't hear his awfulness. And then I'd surround him with nice singers and I'd play youtube videos for him as well. Hopefully that should do the trick!

It's funny because Squeepers is also learning his song. At first, I thought it was a lot like Molly Sue's, but now I realize that it's actually a combination of Jackson (his bio dad) and Molly Sue (his foster dad.)
Jackson does a sort of screech at the end of each "verse" of his song and Squeepers does the same. Better to just let you hear it. He starts singing in the background of this video at :33 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up4S6K9fEi0

I love the name Mozart for a finch! That's lovely! I'll have to remember it!

MiaCarter
Thanks! Mozart is one of the first finches I owned. We bought three Society's and were so enamored by their songs and how artistic they seemed to sound, that we named them Mozart, DaVinci, and the last one was supposed to be Beethovan, but, he was a she, so we settled for Snowball. Not as creative, but we had not learned yet that the hens do not sing, but chirp only.