An experimental study of duet integration in the happy wren, Pheugopedius felix

Templeton, Christopher N.; Mann, Nigel I.; Ríos-Chelén, Alejandro A.; Quirós‐Guerrero, Esmeralda; Garcı́a, Constantino Macı́as; Slater, Peter J.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.07.022

Cited by 32 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…activity in nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) can be triggered on average within 0.9 s to reduce temporal overlap by heterospecific songs (Brumm, 2006). In duetting bird species, the two partners of a pair may react even faster to integrate their duet parts into one coherent song (Hall, 2009;Templeton et al, 2013). Thus, the regulation of vocal onset in birds operates on a similar time scale as the Lombard effect, suggesting a similar role for the fast adjustment of signalling in fluctuating environments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lombard effect onset times reveal the speed of vocal plasticity in a songbird

Hardman

Zollinger

Koselj

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

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There was an error published in J. Exp. Biol. 220, 1065-1071.Eqn 2 was displayed incorrectly. The correct equation appears below.We apologise to the authors and readers for any inconvenience this may have caused. ABSTRACTAnimals that use vocal signals to communicate often compensate for interference and masking from background noise by raising the amplitude of their vocalisations. This response has been termed the Lombard effect. However, despite more than a century of research, little is known how quickly animals can adjust the amplitude of their vocalisations after the onset of noise. The ability to respond quickly to increases in noise levels would allow animals to avoid signal masking and ensure their calls continue to be heard, even if they are interrupted by sudden bursts of high-amplitude noise. We tested how quickly singing male canaries (Serinus canaria) exhibit the Lombard effect by exposing them to short playbacks of white noise and measuring the speed of their responses. We show that canaries exhibit the Lombard effect in as little as 300 ms after the onset of noise and are also able to increase the amplitude of their songs midsong and mid-phrase without pausing. Our results demonstrate high vocal plasticity in this species and suggest that birds are able to adjust the amplitude of their vocalisations very rapidly to ensure they can still be heard even during sudden changes in background noise levels.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lombard effect onset times reveal the speed of vocal plasticity in a songbird

Hardman

Zollinger

Koselj

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…in the Whipbird Psophodes olivaceus (Rogers 2005)], to rapid antiphonal cycles where female and male fit their song elements precisely in the brief pauses between the elements of their partner [e.g. in the Happy Wren, Pheugopedius felix (Templeton et al 2013)]. In White-browed Sparrow Weavers (Plocepasser mahali), antiphonal phrases even alternate with unison phrases within a given duet, both coordinated with a high degree of temporal precision (Voigt et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the natural history of duetting in White-browed Coucals: sex- and body-size-dependent differences in a collective vocal display

Brumm

Goymann

2017

J Ornithol

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Avian duets have long fascinated biologists, but much remains unknown about what information may be contained in these collective displays and how duet structures vary between taxa. In this study, we describe the structure and performance rules of duets in White-browed Coucals Centropus superciliosus, a tropical non-parasitic Cuckoo. We recorded vocal behaviours of 11 focal pairs and measured temporal, frequency, and amplitude characteristics of their duets. Molecular sexing and radio telemetry revealed that duets were initiated by both sexes, but the majority of them were led by the male. Moreover, we found that duet contributions were sex specific with females producing lower-pitched songs than males, reflecting the general size dimorphism in this species. Finally, we also found that song peak frequencies varied with body size within each sex, suggesting that songs used in duets may act as index signals of body size. We speculate that sexual selection has driven White-browed Coucals to sing as low as possible, a notion that is further supported by our observation of special singing postures that may help in lowering song pitch even further.

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“…Like answering rules, timing rules can also be investigated observationally (Rivera-Cáceres, 2015) or experimentally (Templeton et al, 2013). Observational studies infer timing rules by modeling the delay to answer as a function of prior events in the duet (Logue et al, 2008;Rivera-Cáceres, 2015).…”

Section: Insight 2: the Level Of Organization Informs How We Test Formentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers have attempted to identify individual-level answering rules with both observational methods (von Helversen and Wickler, 1971;Vencl and Soucek, 1976;Levin, 1996a;Mann et al, 2003;Mennill and Vehrencamp, 2005;Hall, 2006;Rogers et al, 2006;Valderrama et al, 2013), and interactive playback experiments (Logue, 2006(Logue, , 2007bTempleton et al, 2013). Analyses of observational data can be classified as "directional" analyses that measure phrase transitions within duets, or "holistic" analyses that measure associations at the level of the whole duet.…”

Section: Insight 2: the Level Of Organization Informs How We Test Formentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Duetting as a Collective Behavior

Logue

Krupp

2016

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Mated birds of many species vocalize together, producing duets. Duetting behavior occurs at two levels of organization: the individual level and the pair level. Individuals initiate vocalizations, answer their mates' vocalizations, and control the structure and timing of their own vocalizations. Pairs produce duets that vary with respect to duration, temporal coordination, and phrase-type combinations, among other properties. To make sense of this hierarchical structure, organize duetting research, and identify new avenues of investigation, we advocate a "collective behavior" approach to the study of duets. We critically review key terminology in the duetting literature in light of this approach, and elucidate six insights that emerge from the collective behavior approach: (1) Individual-level behaviors describe pair-level behaviors, but the opposite is not true; (2) The level of organization informs how we test for the rules that govern behavior; (3) Functional hypotheses about duetting must distinguish individual from group characters; (4) Stimulus-response, cybernetics, and entrainment offer alternative hypotheses for the cognitive control of duetting behavior; (5) Avian duetting has the potential to be a model system for the ontogeny of vocal interaction; and (6) The collective behavior approach suggests new avenues of research. Ultimately, we argue that nearly every aspect of duetting research stands to benefit from adopting a collective behavior approach. This approach also has applications to other forms of interactive vocal communication in birds and primates, including humans.

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An experimental study of duet integration in the happy wren, Pheugopedius felix

Cited by 32 publications

References 35 publications

Lombard effect onset times reveal the speed of vocal plasticity in a songbird

Lombard effect onset times reveal the speed of vocal plasticity in a songbird

On the natural history of duetting in White-browed Coucals: sex- and body-size-dependent differences in a collective vocal display

Duetting as a Collective Behavior

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