Structure of western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) song repertoires

1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Horn ◽  
J. Bruce Falls
Keyword(s):  
Song Type ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Sturnella Neglecta ◽  
Song Repertoires

Each male western meadowlark sings a repertoire of 3 – 12 (average 6) song types, sometimes acquiring more with age. Song types within repertoires are not especially contrasting, song type abundance is apparently randomly distributed, and neighboring birds share no more song types than distant birds. The results suggest that song types are learned early in life, and that the particular identity of the song types learned is not important for communication.

scholarly journals Geographic Variation in the Organization of Song Sparrow Repertoires

The Auk ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 936-942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Peters ◽  
William A. Searcy ◽  
Michael D. Beecher ◽  
Stephen Nowicki
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Song Type ◽  
Population Differences ◽  
Repertoire Size ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Geographic Differences ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Mean Similarity ◽  
Song Repertoires

Abstract We asked whether geographic variation exists in the complexity of song repertoires in Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) by quantitatively comparing four measures of repertoire organization across four geographically distant populations: (1) repertoire size (the number of distinct song types), (2) the number of “minimal units of production” per repertoire, (3) mean similarity among variants of the same song type (“within-type” similarity), and (4) mean similarity among song types in a repertoire (“between-type” similarity). We found significant geographic differences among populations in three of these four measures, with mean similarity among song types being the exception. In general, relatively sedentary populations in North Carolina and Washington were more similar to each other than to migratory populations in Pennsylvania and Maine. Contrary to our expectation based on prior interspecific analyses of variation in repertoire complexity, the relatively sedentary populations in our sample had more complex repertoires than did the more migratory populations. The origin and functional significance of population differences in repertoire complexity in this species remain uncertain.

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 dialects as diagnostic characters — acoustic differentiation of the Canary Island Goldcrest subspecies Regulus regulus teneriffae Seebohm 1883 and R. r. ellenthalerae Päckert et al. 2006 (Aves: Passeriformes: Regulidae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 1325 (1) ◽  
pp. 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN PÄCKERT
Keyword(s):  
Type A ◽  
Song Type ◽  
European Continent ◽  
El Hierro ◽  
La Palma ◽  
Strong Resemblance ◽  
The One ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Song Repertoires ◽  
La Gomera

Acoustic differentiation among Goldcrests (Regulus regulus) from the Canary Islands was investigated by sonagraphic analysis with respect to the recently discovered genetic subdivision of the Canarian populations into a clade from Tenerife and La Gomera (nominate ssp. teneriffae) and a second clade from La Palma and El Hierro (recently described as ssp. ellenthalerae). One common dialect, song type A, was found on all four islands inhabited by Goldcrests and is also present on São Miguel, Azores (ssp. azoricus). This one is composed of a rapid trill introduction followed by an ascending part and a terminal flourish. Further Canarian song types are variations of this dialect, differing in trill elements and composition of the second ascending phrase. A remarkably different dialect was exclusively found in the Anaga Mountains on Tenerife. The rhythmic song pattern of alternating high- and lower-pitched elements shows strong resemblance to the song of European nominate regulus and to other island dialects from the Azores. Local variations of song type A were found on El Hierro and La Palma. Three acoustic clusters can be distinguished by discriminant analysis, one comprising all songs of ssp. ellenthalerae from La Palma and El Hierro and two further teneriffae clusters encompassing songs from La Gomera on the one hand and those from Tenerife on the other. The findings are discussed with respect to the potential evolutionary causes of the different song repertoires on the Canaries, the Azores and the European continent and to the use of acoustic markers for taxonomic diagnosis.

Song repertoires of Harris' sparrows (Zonotrichia querula)

1991 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 1867-1874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott A. Shackleton ◽  
Laurene Ratcliffe ◽  
Andrew G. Horn ◽  
Christopher T. Naugler
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Ratio ◽  
Individual Recognition ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Song Type ◽  
Absolute Frequency ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Song Repertoires

The songs of 34 male Harris' sparrows were recorded at Churchill, Manitoba. The songs are composed of one to three whistled notes, all at the same frequency. Individuals sing from one to three song types, each at a discrete frequency. Males are very accurate at returning to the same frequency, both within a bout and between days. Individuals seem to structure their repertoire on the basis of the frequency ratio between types, rather than on the absolute frequency of each type. Males responded to playback of a 3-kHz song with the song in their repertoire that was closest to it in frequency. We suggest that the frequency ratio between song types may be species specific, whereas the absolute frequency of song types may facilitate individual recognition. This species has been previously described as having only a single song type. Our study and other recent work suggest that there is no sharp distinction in the wild between bird species with single and multisong repertoires.

Neighbour–stranger discrimination by song in the veery, a species with song repertoires

1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 1206-1209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Weary ◽  
Robert E. Lemon ◽  
Elizabeth M. Date
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Work ◽  
Territorial Male ◽  
Song Type ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Song Repertoires ◽  
Catharus Fuscescens

Territorial male veeries (Catharus fuscescens) responded much more to playback of song repertoires from strangers than of those from territorial neighbours. Previous experimental work on species that possess song repertoires has demonstrated only weak neighbour–stranger discrimination. These earlier studies, however, employed only one or two song types, which constituted only a fraction of the repertoires of these species. We used the entire repertoires for playback, these varying from one to three song types. The strong discrimination we demonstrate here is interpreted as evidence that repertoires are not detrimental to recognition by song in veeries. Recordings of song sequences from some individuals consistently evoked a stronger response than did those of others. These differences in response were not related to the number of song types, the number of versions of any one song type, nor to the quality of recording presented.

Sequence of songs in repertoires of western meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta)

1975 ◽  
Vol 53 (8) ◽  
pp. 1165-1178 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bruce Falls ◽  
John R. Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Random Sequence ◽  
Song Type ◽  
First Order ◽  
Decrease Rate ◽  
Sequential Organization ◽  
Recurrence Intervals ◽  
Spontaneous Singing ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Sturnella Neglecta

The male western meadowlark has a repertoire of 5–12 song types and produces a bout of repetition of one song type before switching to another. Songs of neighboring birds were played to three territorial males to investigate the effect of playback on choice of song types. In contrast to findings on some other species, there was no tendency for responding birds to choose a song type that matched the playback. However, birds did tend to switch songs whenever the playback started. There was equal response to all song types, and little evidence of habituation between playback sessions.The sequence of switches from one song type to another was compared with a random sequence generated by computer simulation. Both during spontaneous singing, and in response to playback, there was significant avoidance of low recurrence intervals (the number of switches between two bouts of the same song). Thus, birds tended to cycle through their repertoires. The sequence more closely approximates a second- than a first-order Markov process.Song repertoires may function to decrease rate of habituation of receivers to whom the signal is directed. The sequential organization of switches is interpreted within this functional framework.

Song matching in western meadowlarks

1985 ◽  
Vol 63 (11) ◽  
pp. 2520-2524 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bruce Falls
Keyword(s):  
Response Latency ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Response Strength ◽  
Chance Level ◽  
Song Type ◽  
Exchange Of Information ◽  
Neighbor Recognition ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Sturnella Neglecta ◽  
Song Playback

Song playback to western meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta) at Delta, Manitoba, using recordings of song types that the subjects had in their repertoires, showed that the tendency of males to respond with the same song type (match) depended on the source of the recording. Song-type matching decreased from own to stranger to neighbor recordings (not significantly above the chance level in the latter case). An explanation for these results is offered that combines elements of facilitation and neighbor recognition. Correspondence between response latency and intersong intervals of the responding bird suggested that matching song was entrained by the playback but nonmatching responses were not. This indicates that matching and nonmatching are qualitatively different responses. However, matching and nonmatching responses did not differ with respect to conventional measures of response strength. Matching directs a response to a particular singer and may facilitate one-to-one exchange of information, for example, concerning location of the singers. Comparisons are drawn with parallel studies of great tits (Parus major).

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.

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.

SONG CLUSTERING BY MEADOWLARKS: IS IT RELATED TO REPERTOIRE SIZE?

Behaviour ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pca Analysis ◽  
Repertoire Size ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Similar Correlation ◽  
Sturnella Magna ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Song Repertoires

AbstractSome birds with song repertoires sequentially associate (or cluster) songs of different types. That is, certain song types may occur together repeatedly, even on different days. We determined whether clustering of meadowlark songs correlated with repertoire size. We also tested whether clustered songs reflect either their structural similarities, or dissimilarities. Our data were obtained from recordings of free-living individuals of two meadowlark species, eastern, Sturnella magna , and western, S. neglecta . Eastern meadowlarks have approximately 10 times more song types per bird than do westerns. Therefore, if clustering is related to repertoire size, we predicted that there should be (1) proportionately more song clusters in eastern meadowlarks than in westerns, and (2) a similar correlation across individual birds within a species, especially so in easterns, which have a broader range of repertoire sizes. All 14 easterns examined showed clusters whereas only 5 of 11 westerns did so, and the easterns had proportionately more per bird. Many of the same clusters occurred in different recordings of individual easterns. In easterns, the extent of clustering as measured by a PCA analysis correlated strongly with estimated repertoire size. Clustered songs were neither more similar in structure, nor less so, than randomly-paired songs.

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