birds are generally predisposed to favour learning of conspecific songs, and will typically preferentially learn the song form conspecific animals rather than heterospecifics. however, song learning is not completely restricted to within-species songs. if exposed to heterospecific birds of another species in absence of same-species birds, young birds will often adopt the song of the species to which it was exposed. although birds are capable of learning song production purely from audio recordings of birdsong, tutor-student interaction may be important in some species. for example, white-crowned sparrows ("zonotrichia leucophrys") preferentially learn the songs of song sparrows ("melospiza melodia") when exposed to recordings of white-crowned sparrows and live song sparrows. in other words, the interactive nature of a live tutor seems to trump the familiarity of the recordings from conspecifics.