Study
The Zebra Finch: A Synthesis of Field and Laboratory Studies
Zann, Richard A.
Oxford University Press, 1996
A book-length synthesis of the biology of the zebra finch, deliberately setting the extensive laboratory literature against field observations of wild Australian populations, covering song, breeding, social structure and ecology.
- Studied in
- Taeniopygia guttata
- Sample size
- monograph synthesising field and laboratory work on one species
Many features taken as standard from laboratory zebra finches — colony structure, breeding timing, the social context of song — differ substantially from what wild birds do in arid Australia.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
The laboratory zebra finch is a domesticated animal in an artificial environment, and inferences from it to wild behaviour need to be made carefully.
How NatureHQ reads it
Cited here for one purpose. The zebra finch is the animal in which most of what is known about vocal learning was established, and it is a domesticated bird kept in cages, breeding continuously, with a short stereotyped song learned once. Every general statement about "how birds learn song" is disproportionately a statement about this species under those conditions, and this is the standard reference for how far that is from a bird in a dry Australian woodland.
- A synthesis from 1996; a great deal of relevant field and genomic work has appeared since.
- One species — its value here is as a check on generalisation, not as a source of general claims.
- A monograph rather than a peer-reviewed paper, though written by the principal field researcher on the species.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Academic book publishersPublished as an academic monograph.
doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198540793.001.0001
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-02.