= Chaffinch
{title2=Fringilla coelebs}
The <chaffinch> studied in classic song-learning experiments is \i[Fringilla coelebs], a <songbird>. Its male song combines inherited organization with details acquired through <learning>.
In his 1958 experiments, <W. H. Thorpe> compared wild birds, juveniles isolated after time in the wild, and birds hand-reared in auditory isolation from the fifth day of life. The early-isolated birds produced much simpler songs; birds isolated only in their first autumn retained nearly normal patterns. Groups of early-isolated birds could develop elaborate but abnormal shared songs by hearing and copying one another.<The learning of song patterns by birds, with especial reference to the song of the chaffinch Fringilla coelebs by W. H. Thorpe>[Summary, items 5–7]{ref}
A playback apparatus called the Song Tutor presented artificial patterns assembled from chaffinch notes. Birds learned some patterns when their tonal qualities were sufficiently similar to normal song. These results distinguish inherited dispositions from the auditory experience needed for local song details. Learning was also concentrated in a <sensitive period>, principally within the first thirteen months in these experiments.<The learning of song patterns by birds, with especial reference to the song of the chaffinch Fringilla coelebs by W. H. Thorpe>[Summary, items 10 and 13–14]{ref}
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