This project was funded by College Alumni Undergraduate Research Grant as well as Velay Fellows for the summer of 2021. We looked at the neural circuitry behind male and female-directed song in cowbirds. Though the song system is well characterized, it is typically understood in the context of male courtship behavior, though it is also engaged as an aggressive behavior towards other males. We wish to understand the flexibility of this neural circuitry. Thus, we are studying key regions in the song system as well as other related areas by looking at activity-dependent immediate early gene expression with in-situ hybridization.