Begging calls support offspring individual identity and recognition by zebra finch parents.

Abstract In colonial birds, the recognition between parents and their offspring is essential to ensure the exclusivity of parental care. Although individual vocal recognition seems to be a key component of parent-chicks recognition, few studies assessed the period when the emergence of the vocal signature takes place. The present study investigated the acoustic cues of signaler identity carried in the begging calls at three stages of development in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata castanotis), a colonial species which experiences food-dependence after fledging. Testing parents with playback of begging calls recorded the day before fledging, we found that the offspring recognition was base…