Geographical variation in song frequency and structure: the effects of vicariant isolation, habitat type and body size

Koetz, Anna H.; Westcott, David A.; Congdon, Bradley C.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.03.022

Cited by 54 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Moreover, the same negative correlation between body size and vocal pitch has also been found within species (e.g. Tubaro and Mahler 1998;Laiolo et al 2004;Koetz et al 2007;Geberzahn et al unpublished data). In addition to frequency parameters, call amplitude is thought to be an honest indicator of body size in insects and, thus, to play a crucial part in sexual selection in this taxon (Simmons 1988;Gray 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Song amplitude and body size in birds

Brumm

2009

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Bird song is a sexually selected multidimensional signal. A fundamental question regarding the evolution of sexually selected signals is what information they convey and how their honesty is maintained. Song amplitude is a performance-related signal trait that varies considerably between individuals, but this signal dimension has been neglected in past studies. I found that median song amplitude in male nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) did not vary significantly with body size or residual body mass. In contrast, I found a significant negative correlation between body size (and also residual mass) and the maximum song amplitude during interactive singing in nightingales. However, the function of these more subtle differences in song amplitude remains to be investigated. By and large, the results of this study suggest that mean song amplitude is unlikely to indicate a bird's body size or current condition (measured as residual mass).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Song amplitude and body size in birds

Brumm

2009

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…We also examine how song structure changes with location. Species with wide geographical ranges are likely to experience cultural drift in song structure (Koetz et al 2007). We test whether song structure changes sharply at subspecies boundaries reflecting differentiation through vicariance, or changes gradually over space reflecting isolation by distance mechanisms (Koetz et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macrogeographical variation in the song of a widely distributed African warbler

Benedict

Bowie

2009

Biol. Lett.

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The songs of oscine passerine birds vary on many spatial scales, reflecting the actions of diverse evolutionary pressures. Here we examine the songs of Cisticola erythrops, which effectively signal species identity across a geographical area spanning 6500 km in sub-Saharan Africa. Selection for species identification should promote stability in song traits, while sexual selection and geographical segregation should promote diversity. Cisticola erythrops share syllable types across the entire range of species and structure songs similarly, but individuals sing highly variable songs through improvisational recombination of syllables. Patterns of syllable use change gradually across the range of the species and do not show distinct breaks at subspecies boundaries. The acoustic properties of the most common syllable type also change gradually with distance. The results illustrate how songs can be simultaneously speciesspecific and highly variable at an individual level. At a larger level, patterns of variation indicate that cultural drift has generated song diversity through an isolation by distance mechanism.

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“…Therefore, we conclude that maximum frequency of whole songs was the best indicator of body size in male warblers. However, an inverse relationship between body size and vocalization pitch has been described in a number of species (Smith & Harper 2004;Koetz et al 2007;Potvin 2013;Linhart & Fuchs 2015;Mason & Burns 2015). In these studies, low frequency was the best predictor of body size, Figure 2.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maximum frequency of songs reflects body size among male dusky warblers Phylloscopus fuscatus (Passeriformes: Phylloscopidae)

Liu

Zhang

et al. 2017

The European Zoological Journal

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Song plays a vital role in communication in songbirds, primarily for territorial defense and mate attraction. Larger animals, having larger vocal organs, produce low sound frequencies more efficiently. Accordingly, the frequency of vocalizations is often negatively correlated with body size across species, and also among individuals of many species, including several nonsongbirds. However, little is known about whether song frequency reveals information about body size among males. We tested for the predicted positive relationship between body size and song traits in male dusky warblers (Phylloscopus fuscatus). In many animal species, some vocalizations are difficult to produce and can therefore indicate quality of signalers. Male dusky warblers produce songs with trilled sequences that are limited in their timing and frequency structure by physiological constraints on vocal performance. We investigated whether there was a relationship between body size and trilled vocalizations in the dusky warbler. We recorded songs of free-living male dusky warblers at dawn, and captured birds with mist nets for morphometric measurements (tarsus length, as an indicator of body size). We conducted correlation analyses between tarsus length and a composite measure of songs. In dusky warblers, body size was not significantly related to the average frequency of their overall songs, low frequency, bandwidth frequency, average note number of songs, or average song duration. In contrast, the maximum frequency of song was found to correlate positively with tarsus length. For trilled vocalizations, we found most trill traits were not significantly related to body size, and only the maximum frequency of trills was positively related to body size. Additionally, the maximal value of frequency bandwidth decreased with increasing trill rates. Overall, these results suggest that in male dusky warblers, the maximum frequency of the entire song is a reliable indicator of body size.

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Geographical variation in song frequency and structure: the effects of vicariant isolation, habitat type and body size

Cited by 54 publications

References 40 publications

Song amplitude and body size in birds

Song amplitude and body size in birds

Macrogeographical variation in the song of a widely distributed African warbler

Maximum frequency of songs reflects body size among male dusky warblers Phylloscopus fuscatus (Passeriformes: Phylloscopidae)

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