Interactive vocal communication at the nest by parent Great TitsParus major

Abstract

Although most bird species show monogamous pair bonds and bi‐parental care, little is known of how mated birds coordinate their activities. Whether or not partners communicate with each other to adjust their behaviour remains an open question. During incubation and the first days after hatching, one parent – generally the female – stays in the nest for extended periods, and might depend on acoustic communication to exchange information with its mate outside. The Great Tit Parus major is an interesting study system to investigate intra‐pair communication at the nest because males address songs to their mate while she is in the nest cavity, and females answer the male from the cavity with calls. However, the function of this communication remains unknown. In this study, we recorded the vocalizations and observed the resulting behaviour of Great Tit pairs around the nest at different breeding stages (laying, incubation and chick‐rearing). We observed vocal exchanges (vocalization bouts, alternated on the same tempo, between the female inside the nest and her male outside) in three contexts with different outcomes: (1) the female left the nest, (2) the male entered the box with food, and the female then used specific call types, (3) mates stopped calling but did not leave or enter the nest. The structure of vocal exchanges was globally stable between contexts, but females used calls with an up‐shifted spectrum during exchanges, at the end of which they left the nest or the male entered the nest. Birds vocalized more and at higher tempo during exchanges that ended up in feeding inside the nest. Birds also vocalized more during exchanges taking place during laying – a period of active mate guarding – than during incubation. We conclude that vocal exchanges could signal the females’ need for food and the males’ mate guarding behaviour, and discuss other possible functions of this communication.

Acoustic Cooperation: Acoustic Communication Regulates Conflict and Cooperation Within the Family

“…In follow up studies, Boucaud, Vignal, and collaborators further demonstrated that females may signal their immediate needs to their partner by vocalizing from inside the nest when the male arrives in the vicinity (Boucaud et al, 2016c(Boucaud et al, , 2017. In wild zebra finches, female calling rate and her calls' acoustic structure on her mate arrival predicted whether or not the male relieved the female for incubation (Boucaud et al, 2017).…”

“…great tits (Parus major), with female-only incubation, female's vocalisations, and the pair's vocal interactions differed depending on whether or not the male entered the nest to feed the female (Gorissen and Eens, 2005;Boucaud et al, 2016c). Moreover, when great tit females were experimentally supplemented with food, they altered their vocalisations, uttered before and after the male entered the nest (Boucaud et al, 2016b).…”

What’s in a Moment: What Can Be Learned About Pair Bonding From Studying Moment-To-Moment Behavioral Synchrony Between Partners?

“…During this period, the male and female have brief vocal exchanges where the male sings from a perch and the female answers predominately with calls ( Gorissen and Eens, 2004 ; Boucaud et al, 2016b , c ). These vocal exchanges are longer and more rapid when the male feeds the female ( Boucaud et al, 2016c ), and experimentally manipulating food availability shows that females use calling as an honest indicator of their hunger levels ( Boucaud et al, 2016b ). These lines of work emphasize that much behaviorally relevant information can be communicated in these coordinated nesting exchanges.…”

On resolving the selective interspecific information use vs. owner aggression hypothesis dilemma—a commentary

“…Inspection of tit nests may be risky for flycatchers, as they may even be killed by nest owners Samplonius and Both 2019). Although flycatchers could probably reduce the mortality risk by determining tit nest box occupation and stage from outside the box, based on the intra-pair vocal activity of tits (Baucaud et al 2016), assessing tit clutch size would require entering the nest. The access to tit nests will be reduced and riskier during the incubation stage, when female tits spend more time in the nest than during egg laying (Slagsvold and Wiebe 2017).…”