A new study finds that same-sex pairs of zebra finches are just as attached, loving and devoted to each other as those coupled with a member of the opposite sex.

Researchers gleaned this insight from a study of zebra finches, which prove great birds to document because of their highly vocal and playful habits. Led by Julie Elie from the University of California Berkeley, the team was interested in zebra finches’ behavior because the birds establish life-long relationships and are extremely social. A new study shows that homosexual bonds are just as strong as heterosexual bonds in zebra finches.

‘I’m interested in how animals establish relationships and how [they] use acoustic communication in their social interactions,’ Dr Elie told BBC Nature.

‘My observations of [them] led me to this surprising result: same-sex individuals would also interact in affiliative manners, like male-female pairs,’ she added.

Dr. Elie, along with colleagues Clementine Vignal and Nicolas Mathevon from the University of Saint-Etienne, raised a group of all male birds to adulthood, at which point nearly half of them coupled up and bonded. The team says the paired birds perched next to each other, sang, preened, and nuzzled beaks.

To see if the males would stray if introduced to […]