Deciphering Information Encoded in Birdsong: Male Songbirds with Fertile Mates Respond Most Strongly to Complex, Low-Amplitude Songs Used in Courtship

Abstract

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“…visual, tactile, auditory, and olfactory), including low-amplitude songs, can be employed to further court and stimulate the female (Catchpole and Slater 2008). The low-amplitude songs produced during directed courtship can be structurally distinct and more complex than the high-amplitude songs used in mate attraction (Dabelsteen et al 1998, Balsby 2000, Reichard et al 2011. Based on a similar signaling system in crickets, Zuk et al (2008) hypothesized that females may rely predominantly on high-amplitude, mate-attraction songs for information relating to species recognition, and lowamplitude, courtship songs for information about male quality.…”

“…In addition to high-amplitude signals, many avian and nonavian species are known to produce a variety of lowamplitude signals, which are drastically understudied when compared with their high-amplitude counterparts (Dabelsteen et al 1998, Osiejuk 2011, Reichard et al 2011). Here, we broadly define low-amplitude signals as any acoustic signal produced at a low volume, such that the signal's effective transmission distance is limited to a close-proximity interaction between the sender and receiver.…”

“…Recently, the focus has shifted to testing whether low-amplitude singing can serve as an honest signal of behavioral intent , Ballentine et al 2008, Hof and Hazlett 2010, Templeton et al 2012, and whether low-amplitude songs are salient signals that elicit responses from both male (Balsby and Dabelsteen 2005, Lampe et al 2010, Reichard et al 2011, Anderson et al 2012, Rosvall et al 2012) and female receivers (Anderson et al 2007). The dominant focus of this research has emphasized the aggressive function of low-amplitude singing, and its surprising ability to predict a physical attack more reliably than other signaling strategies such as song-type matching or song overlapping (Searcy and Beecher 2009, Ręk and Osiejuk 2011, Akçay et al 2013.…”

Soft song during aggressive interactions: Seasonal changes and endocrine correlates in song sparrows

“…Traditionally, researchers have focused on high amplitude songs (hereafter broadcast songs) that transmit over a large distance to potentially numerous receivers. Many songbirds also produce low amplitude songs (hereafter soft songs, but also known as short range songs, quiet songs, whispered songs) that are performed at close range during courtship or territorial disputes (Anderson et al, , 2008(Anderson et al, , 2012Dabelsteen, 1990;Dabelsteen and Pedersen, 1988;Dabelsteen et al, 1998;Hof and Hazlett, 2010;Reichard et al, 2011;Titus, 1998). Soft song is a highly aggressive signal in black-throated blue warblers (Dendroica caerulescens) (Hof and Hazlett, 2010), swamp sparrows (Melospiza georgiana) (Ballentine et al, 2008), and song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) .…”

A survey of the context and structure of high- and low-amplitude calls in mammals

“…pika, Ochotona princeps: Conner, 1985; tree shrew, Tupaia belangeri: Binz & Zimmermann, 1989; ringtailed lemur, Lemur catta: Macedonia, 1993 Leuchtenberger, Sousa-Lima, Duplaix, Magnusson, & Mourão, 2014), few mammalian studies directly address the potential function and subsequent adaptive benefit of low-amplitude calls. In comparison, a growing body of research on low-amplitude vocalizations in birds reveals that low-amplitude calling plays an important role in warning conspecifics of predator threats (Dabelsteen, McGregor, Lampe, Langmore, & Holland, 1998) and in mediating a multitude of social contexts, such as competitive interactions (Akçay, Tom, Holmes, Campbell, & Beecher, 2011;Searcy & Nowicki, 2006), courtship (Dabelsteen et al, 1998;Reichard, Rice, Vanderbilt, & Ketterson, 2011;Reichard, Rice, Schultz, & Schrock, 2013) and pair bond maintenance (Elie et al, 2010).…”