Song matching in a long‐lived, sedentary bird with a low song rate: The importance of song type, song duration and intrusion

Ethology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 126 (12) ◽  
pp. 1098-1110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Ansell ◽  
Robert D. Magrath ◽  
Tonya M. Haff
Keyword(s):  
Song Type ◽  
Song Rate

Effects of Food Supplementation, Song Playback, and Temperature on Vocal Territorial Behavior of Carolina Wrens

The Auk ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy G. Strain ◽  
Ronald L. Mumme
Keyword(s):  
Ambient Temperature ◽  
Territorial Behavior ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Food Supplementation ◽  
Song Type ◽  
Song Rate ◽  
Thryothorus Ludovicianus ◽  
Type Change ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Song Playback

Abstract We found both the song rate and the rate of song-type change of male Carolina Wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus) in winter were positively correlated with ambient temperature. When the effect of temperature was controlled statistically, food supplementation significantly increased both the song rate and the rate of song-type change. Song playback did not significantly increase either song rate or rate of song-type change, however. Because foraging and singing are mutually exclusive behaviors in Carolina Wrens, the increase in vocal territorial behavior associated with warmer temperatures and food supplementation may reflect a decrease in the time required for foraging. The rate of vocal territorial behavior in winter may be more dependent on the amount of food available to wrens than on the presence of intruders.

Chaffinch Song Repertoires and the Beau Geste Hypothesis

Behaviour ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 87 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 256-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.M. Dawson ◽  
P.F. Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Song Type ◽  
Equal Frequency ◽  
Repertoire Size ◽  
Fringilla Coelebs ◽  
Song Rate ◽  
Significant Tendency ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Degree Of Similarity ◽  
Song Repertoires

AbstractThe aim of this investigation was to determine to what extent song repertoires and singing behaviour of chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) evolved as a means by which resident birds deceive intruders into overestimating the density of residents, making the area appear less suitable for settlement. (1) The chaffinches studied did not show a significant tendency to change song posts synchronously any more than would be expected by chance. (2) Approximately 90% of song type/song post changes were asynchronous. (3) Half of the birds did not repeat their song types with equal frequency, nor did they distribute their singing effort evenly over all the song posts. (4) The degree of similarity between song types in the same repertoire and the degree of similarity between song types from different individuals were not found to be significantly different. (5) No correlation between song rate and repertoire size was found, but it was concluded that seasonal biases strongly restricted this facet of the investigation. On the basis of these findings it is concluded that the evolution of repertoires and singing behaviour in chaffinches seems unlikely to have occurred in conformity with the Beau Geste hypothesis.

Song rate as a signal for nest site quality in blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla)

1995 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 399-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Hoi-Leitner ◽  
H. Nechtelberger ◽  
H. Hoi
Keyword(s):  
Nest Site ◽  
Site Quality ◽  
Sylvia Atricapilla ◽  
Song Rate

scholarly journals The Duet Code of the Female Black-Bellied Wren

The Condor ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Logue
Keyword(s):  
Animal Communication ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Song Type ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Female Response ◽  
Male Song ◽  
Vocal Responses ◽  
Vocal Signals ◽  
Behavioral Mechanisms ◽  
Song Types

Abstract In many duet-singing songbirds, paired birds combine their song types nonrandomly to form duet songs. Several different behavioral mechanisms could generate nonrandom song type associations in duets. I tested female Black-bellied Wrens (Thryothorus fasciatoventris) for one such mechanism: adherence to a set of rules linking female response songs to male stimulus songs. I call this set of rules a “duet code.” Duets of free-living Black-bellied Wrens were recorded in 2001 and 2002. In 2003 I returned to the same territories and played the male song types from the recorded duets. Females answered male song stimuli as if duetting with the playback speaker. Although the known repertoires of females averaged 8.4 song types, each female sang only a single song type in response to each male song type. Random answering could not account for this pattern, supporting the hypothesis that females abide by duet codes. Females that were still paired with their mates from 2001–2002 answered 100% of their mate's songs with the same song types they had used previously, demonstrating that codes are stable over time. In contrast, females that were new to a territory answered an average of only 18% of their mate's song types with the same song type as the previous female, indicating that duet codes are individually distinctive. Duet participation by female Black-bellied Wrens represents a special kind of animal communication, in which discrete vocal signals consistently elicit discrete vocal responses according to an individually distinctive set of rules.

Assessing the similarity of song-type transitions among birds: evidence for interspecies variation

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 ◽  
pp. 161-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Hedley ◽  
David M. Logue ◽  
Lauryn Benedict ◽  
Daniel J. Mennill
Keyword(s):  
Song Type ◽  
Interspecies Variation

scholarly journals Deceptive vocal duets and multimodal display in a songbird

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1864) ◽  
pp. 20171774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Ręk ◽  
Robert D. Magrath
Keyword(s):  
Group Living ◽  
Visual Display ◽  
Reliable Information ◽  
Song Type ◽  
Visual Displays ◽  
Visual Component ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Multimodal Signalling ◽  
Australian Magpie ◽  
Vocal Duets

Many group-living animals cooperatively signal to defend resources, but what stops deceptive signalling to competitors about coalition strength? Cooperative-signalling species include mated pairs of birds that sing duets to defend their territory. Individuals of these species sometimes sing ‘pseudo-duets’ by mimicking their partner's contribution, but it is unknown if these songs are deceptive, or why duets are normally reliable. We studied pseudo-duets in Australian magpie-larks, Grallina cyanoleuca , and tested whether multimodal signalling constrains deception. Magpie-larks give antiphonal duets coordinated with a visual display, with each sex typically choosing a different song type within the duet. Individuals produced pseudo-duets almost exclusively during nesting when partners were apart, but the two song types were used in sequence rather than antiphonally. Strikingly, birds hid and gave no visual displays, implying deceptive suppression of information. Acoustic playbacks showed that pseudo-duets provoked the same response from residents as true duets, regardless of whether they were sequential or antiphonal, and stronger response than that to true duets consisting of a single song type. By contrast, experiments with robot models showed that songs accompanied by movements of two birds prompted stronger responses than songs accompanied by movements of one bird, irrespective of the number of song types or singers. We conclude that magpie-larks used deceptive pseudo-duets when partners were apart, and suppressed the visual display to maintain the subterfuge. We suggest that the visual component of many species' duets provides the most reliable information about the number of signallers and may have evolved to maintain honesty in duet communication.

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