Fifty years of bird song research: a case study in animal behaviour

Song Structure and Repertoire Sharing in the Tawny PipitAnthus campestrisin Poland

“…Consequently, despite the fact that our knowledge of song behaviour has increased substantially in the last fifty years, several questions remain unanswered. One of these gaps in knowledge concerns songbirds with small repertoires, and factors affecting changes in repertoire size on an evolutionary scale (Slater 2003). To answer questions such as Why do some related bird species have small repertoires or simple songs while others do not?…”

Ethology, Sociobiology, and Evolutionary Psychology

“…As far as song is concerned he has been largely right but only if, as sociobiologists are prone to do, one ignores development." (Slater 2003) A distinctive feature of the new behavioral ecology/sociobiology was the conviction that Tinbergen's four questions are not, as he himself had thought, closely interlinked. During the 1960s different ethological research groups had come to focus on different parts of the Tinbergian research program (Durant 1986(Durant : 1612; see also Burkhardt 2005).…”

Dawn singing behavior of a tropical bird species, the Pied Bush Chat Saxicola caprata

“…For example, song type length reflects competitive ability of males Hoopoe (Upupa epops) (Vivaldi et al, 2004). Females of several species have also been found to prefer some special song types (Vallet and Kreutzer, 1995;Foerster, 2002); these may be ones that are difficult to produce so that only males of high quality can master them (Slater, 2003). Studies also suggest that the receivers that focus solely on physical song characteristics of a male may gain information about the male's willingness to escalate a fight (Dabelsteen and Pedersen, 1992); its previous experience or age (Lambrechts and Dhondt, 1986;Welling et al, 1995); current body condition (Godfrey and Bryant, 2000) and social rank in a network of territorial individuals (Otter et al, 1997).…”