What is the difference between innate and learned behavior?
In the spring, male songbirds sing species-specific characteristic songs to establish and maintain breeding territories and to attract mates. Although females generally do not produce song, they presumably learn to recognize the song pattern as well. The male’s species-specific song patterns are usually learned from an adult model early in life. This early auditory experience superimposes detail on an innately determined species-specific song pattern. Thus, the development of bird song is a classic example of the nature vs. nurture (innate vs. learned) problem. One consequence of song learning is vocal variation among individuals. The inevitable occasional mistake in the learning process (a cultural mutation) produces new song variations, which may then be passed on to the next generation of song learners. Song types can vary geographically. When songs within an area are relatively similar and differ from the songs of other localities, we call the local song variants “dialects” as we s
