"Leader-Follower" Singing in Red-Winged Blackbirds

Smith, Douglas G.; Norman, Douglas O.

doi:10.2307/1367861

Cited by 19 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…The stronger responses to the leader are in line with interpretations of observational studies that suggest that leader^follower relations in the timing of songs during alternated singing may re£ect a sort of dominance^subordinance relation (Smith & Norman 1979;Popp 1989). In line with these observational studies our results indicate that the timing of songs does carry important information, even when there is no acoustic overlap, as shown earlier (Todt 1981;Hultsch & Todt 1982;Wol¡gramm & Todt 1982;Brindley 1991;Nielsen & Vehrencamp 1995;Dabelsteen et al 1996Dabelsteen et al , 1997Naguib 1999).…”

Section: (A) Functional Implications Of Leading In An Interactionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Nightingales respond more strongly to vocal leaders of simulated dyadic interactions

Naguib

Fichtel

Todt

1999

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Although vocal interactions in songbirds have been well studied, little is known about the extent to which birds attend to their conspeci¢cs' interactions. Attending to others' interactions can provide valuable information since vocal interactions are often asymmetrical and can re£ect di¡erences in the state or quality of the signallers. Playback experiments with simulated dyadic interactions showed that male territorial nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) attend to asymmetries in interactions and respond more strongly to rivals that overlap the songs of their counterpart. In order to test if nightingales respond di¡erently to two interacting rivals that are alternating songs asymmetrically (with leader^follower roles), we simulated an interaction using a dual-speaker design. Subjects discriminated between the simulated singing strategies and responded more intensely at the loudspeaker playing the preceding songs. This suggests that individuals whose songs precede in an interaction when there is no acoustic overlap are perceived as more serious rivals. Intense responses to the preceding songs compared with intense responses to the overlapping (non-preceding) songs in a previous study also indicate that discrimination is not the result of one speci¢c proximate cue such as greater attention to the ¢rst-or last-heard stimulus. Thus, these results provide further evidence that by listening to asymmetries in conspeci¢cs' vocal interactions, receivers can obtain valuable information on their relative di¡erences.

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Section: (A) Functional Implications Of Leading In An Interactionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Nightingales respond more strongly to vocal leaders of simulated dyadic interactions

Naguib

Fichtel

Todt

1999

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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“…This "leader-follower" type of singing has also been observed in Red-winged Blackbirds Agelaius phoeniceus, in which songs of intruding males were followed by the resident male's song (Smith and Norman 1979). Some males responded immediately to each playback song by twittering for some seconds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

The Response of Male Redwings Turdus iliacus to Playback of Conspecific Songs with or without the Terminating Twitter

Lampe¹

1991

Ornis Scandinavica

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“…In one simple form of this countersinging, males only sing during silences between the songs of other males (CODY & BROWN 1969;FICKEN et al 1974;1985;WASSERMAN 1977;HULTSCH & TODT 1980). Such countersinging might serve to reduce acoustic interference among the songs of neighboring males (e. g., CODY & BROWN 1969;FICKEN et al 1974), although it might also be a contest, in which males alternately lead or follow in vocal interactions, depending on whether they are intruding or defending a territory (SMITH & NORMAN 1979).…”

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confidence: 99%

Repertoires and Countersinging in Western Meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta)

Horn

Falls

1988

Ethology

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Countersinging in territorial birds has been viewed as a form of vocal contest. We studied the role of song repertoires in countersinging by western meadowlarks, Sturnella neglecta, by simultaneous observations of neighboring males. Neighbors tended to switch song types synchronously, but tendency to lead or follow in such switches did not correlate with orientation, subsequent behaviour, tendency to interact (as measured by the number of repetitions of each song type), or breeding stage. Males did not match song types, but were more likely to sing if their neighbour sang a song type that they shared. We suggest that synchronous switching is not a vocal contest in this species, but may be a form of competitive advertisement.

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"Leader-Follower" Singing in Red-Winged Blackbirds

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Nightingales respond more strongly to vocal leaders of simulated dyadic interactions

Nightingales respond more strongly to vocal leaders of simulated dyadic interactions

The Response of Male Redwings Turdus iliacus to Playback of Conspecific Songs with or without the Terminating Twitter

Repertoires and Countersinging in Western Meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta)

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