Although the English language literature on aviculture called these birds as Bengali finch, the German aviculturist Karl Russ called them in 1871 as Japanese mövchen (or mew, an old word for gull, possibly related to Chinese mövchen, a pigeon breed named in France and introduced to Germany around the same time for their resemblance to gulls).

Birds breathe in oxygen past the throat and into the trachea where air splits off into either bronchial tube to reach the lungs.

This avian song-producing organ is double-barrelled having two potential sound sources that are each under unilateral, ipsilateral neural control.

Even when birds are rapidly switching between the left and right sides of the syrinx, or producing songs unilaterally, the respiratory muscles on both sides are acting equally, making song production require symmetrical respiratory motor control and asymmetrical syrinx motor control.

Since the Bengalese finch has the ability to rapidly change the acoustic structure of their songs in response to deafening and experimental modulations of auditory feedback, they have gained considerable attention regarding the workings of their syrinx.

With the use of syringeal denervation in a large sample group and air pressure recordings before and after unilateral nerve resection in a smaller sample group, data from this study provided evidence of syringeal specialization of acoustic control and rapid switching of motor control during Bengalese song production.

The Bengali finch is a domesticated form of the wild white-backed munia that has not had to undergo pressures of natural selection and adaptation to harsh environments.

This caged bird has experienced safe, human controlled environmental conditions without shortages of food and water, without predation, and a low risk of parasitism.

Corticosterone is the main glucocorticoid hormone in birds that is released when the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responds to stress stimuli.

In juvenile birds, it improves food intake, foraging, begging calls, and aggression, therefore enhancing survival potential in the wild.

[10] A Suzuki et al. (2014) compared the stress hormone levels of corticosterone in the domesticated Bengali finch in the wild ancestor, the white-backed munia.

Thus, stress hormone levels are one strong mechanism of song development important for understanding the evolutionary adaptations of the Bengali finch and other birds.

The aged songbirds exhibited a slowed tempo caused by an increase in the silent intersyllable intervals which may be an effect of changes in the peripheral motor control.

Hearing takes place in the cochlea, a straight or slightly curved tube that varies in length depending on the bird species.

Bengalese finches were used as the focal study species in research done by Nishikawa, Okada & Okanoya (2008) which aimed to determine which of the alternate views of neural representation occur in the songbird brain.

Single-unit activities of HVC neurons driven by all possible element pair stimuli in sedated Bengalese finches were recorded using five different types of sound stimulus.

Regardless of whether one side is responsible for a specific set of frequencies over another, both hemispheres of the brain must work simultaneously to produce a song.

Because Bengalese finches have been shown to use the two sides of their syrinx in different ways during vocal production, it has been established that bilateral hemispheric control is required to coordinate and regulate these contrasting syringeal activities.

In this kind of highly lateralized song production the neural brain activity must be asymmetric so that the different behavioral aspects are executed correctly.

Bengalese finches have been found to require real-time auditory feedback in order to produce normal songs even in adulthood.

In addition, the results from the study did not support the idea of females preferring complexity over simplicity in song sequences.

These findings differ from past examinations, like the Morisaka, Katahira & Okanoya (2008) study that suggested evidence of female Bengali finches preferring complex songs over simple ones.

Evolutionary adaptations of specifically complex song production in relation to female preference in Bengali finches continues to be a topic worth examining.

[20] Deepening the contrast between these two species is the critical factor that Bengali finches require real-time auditory feedback for normal song syntax.

[21] The information gained by Secora et al. (2012) concerning syringeal specialization turned out to be in high contrast to what was known about zebra finch song production.

[9] The Bengali and zebra finch are closely related oscine songbirds that have been pivotal to the study of song learning, maintenance, and retention.

Research conducted on these species has led to a more rounded understanding of the acquisition of speech in human children and the age related changes in motor performance.