Female zebra finches do not sing yet share neural pathways necessary for singing in males.

Adult female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), which do not produce learned songs, have long been thought to possess only vestiges of the forebrain network that supports learned song in males. This view ostensibly explains why females do not sing-many of the neural populations and pathways that make up the male song control network appear rudimentary or even missing in females. For example, classic studies of vocal-premotor cortex (HVC, acronym is name) in male zebra finches identified prominent efferent pathways from HVC to vocal-motor cortex (RA, robust nucleus of the arcopallium) and from HVC to the avian basal ganglia (Area X).