Mobbing behaviour in a passerine community increases with prevalence in predator diet

Dutour, Mylène; Léna, Jean‐Paul; Lengagne, Thierry

doi:10.1111/ibi.12461

Cited by 29 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Auditory masking by D notes could also be the reason why great tits do not produce D‐FME calls and, therefore, explain why the ordering rule is the way it is. Mobbing call responsiveness (and/or interpretation) may also depend on the social context, for instance, according to the presence of the receiver's mate in the vicinity (Suzuki et al, ) or the seasonal activity (Dutour, Cordonnier, Léna, & Lengagne, ; Dutour, Lena, et al, ; Lucas, Freeberg, Long, & Krishnan, ). In the Japanese tit, the sequence reversal effect was examined in flock members during the non‐breeding season (Suzuki et al, ), while in the present study, tests were conducted on great tits at the onset and at the end of the breeding season.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Syntax manipulation changes perception of mobbing call sequences across passerine species

2019

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Many species approach predators to harass them and drive them away. Both the intensity of this antipredator strategy and its success are positively related to the size of the group that carries out this mobbing. To recruit individuals to the mob, members of prey species produce mobbing calls. In some songbirds—the Japanese tit, Parus minor, and the southern pied babbler, Turdoides bicolor—mobbing calls are structurally complex and it has been suggested that they convey information by means of compositional syntax, when meaningful items are combined into larger units. These two species combine alert and recruitment calls into an alert and recruitment sequence when attracting conspecifics to cooperate in mobbing a predator. Whether this rudimentary, two‐call, compositional structure is used by other bird species in mobbing calls and how it can alter the ability of heterospecifics to adequately recognize mobbing calls is not well understood. Heterospecifics’ responses to mobs are critical to the success of the mobbing strategy, so it is of great importance to understand whether and how syntax influences these responses. To address these questions, we conducted two playback experiments. Firstly, we investigated whether the great tit, Parus major, extracts different meanings from different individual motifs (i.e., component calls), and from combined motifs in both natural and artificially reversed order. We found that great tits extract different meanings from the two motifs involved in mobbing calls and that they also discriminate for motif order reversal in the mobbing call sequence. Secondly, we investigated whether heterospecifics (the coal tit, Periparus ater, and the common chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs) are sensitive to syntax alteration of great tit mobbing calls. While chaffinches did not respond to great tit mobbing calls, coal tits were sensitive to mobbing call sequence reversal although they did not react in the same way as conspecific subjects. Overall, whereas our results indicate that tits are sensitive to call reversal, this is not to say that tits actually use compositional syntax to increase the information content.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Syntax manipulation changes perception of mobbing call sequences across passerine species

2019

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“…From late winter to early spring, pygmy owls actively whistle territorial and courtship calls, and therefore their presence in a certain forest patch should be easily detectable by the prey birds. Small passerines are known to respond to territorial calls of pygmy owls by mobbing (Dutour et al 2016), and mobbing intensity is especially strong in autumn and in species that are frequently preyed on by pygmy owls (Dutour et al 2017).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antioxidant Enzyme Activities Vary with Predation Risk and Environmental Conditions in Free-Living Passerine Birds

Morosinotto

Rainio

Ruuskanen

et al. 2018

Physiological and Biochemical Zoology

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Prolonged physiological stress response may lead to an excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and ultimately to oxidative stress and severe fitness costs. We investigated whether natural variation in predation risk, induced by pygmy owls (Glaucidium passerinum), modifies the oxidative status of two free-living food-supplemented passerine bird species-the great tit (Parus major) and the willow tit (Poecile montanus)-in March 2012 and 2013. Predation risk significantly affected antioxidant enzyme activities of willow tits. Antioxidant enzyme activities (principal component factor 2 [PC2] representing glutathione-S-transferase and superoxide dismutase activities) were higher in high predation risk areas in 2013 than in low predation risk areas in the same year. Higher enzyme activities may suggest higher ROS production in birds living under high predation risk. In addition, antioxidant enzyme activities (PC2) were also higher in high predation risk areas in 2013 than in high predation risk areas in the previous year, 2012. This may represent variation in the risk represented by pygmy owls, which is probably inversely related to the natural fluctuations in the densities of their main prey, voles. In willow tits, PC1 (representing catalase, total glutathione, the ratio of reduced to oxidized glutathione, and protein carbonylation) was not affected by perceived predation risk, nor were antioxidant levels or enzyme activities in great tits. Higher enzyme activities observed in willow tits suggest that predator presence can modify the antioxidant status of avian prey, but the response also seem to be influenced by other environmental characteristics, like harsh winter conditions.

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“…Species react selectively to other species' mobbing calls and their reactions to the alarm calls can vary between species [30][31][32] and seasons [27,33,34]. Furthermore, mobbing calls often attract mixed groups of species [31,32,35] and can generate different behavior outcomes for different species. For example, some species will avoid or flee from the area of the alert calls and some will join the mobbing and participate [27,35].…”

Section: Vigilance In Forest Habitatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effects of vegetation structure on bird-mobbing behavior has been mainly studied in broad-leaved forests [31,51,52]. On the other hand, mobbing behavior in coniferous forest plantations has not been widely studied (but see [8,32]). Furthermore, only a few studies have applied their findings on behavioral ecology to conservation planning (but see [8]).…”

Section: Inter and Intraspecific Responses To Mobbingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Pine Forest Structure on Bird-Mobbing Behavior: From Individual Response to Community Composition

Dagan

Izhaki

2019

Forests

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Pine-forest bird communities are affected by the forest structure and the density and composition of its understory vegetation. In this study, we focused on the combined effects of vegetation structure and caller identity on the mobbing behavior of birds in breeding and non-breeding seasons. We examined the effect of the understory structure and the density of three types of conifer forest habitats on bird behavior by broadcasting three different types of mobbing calls: Those of two all-year resident species in the state Israel (Sardinian warbler Sylvia melanocephala Gmelin and great tit Parus major L.) and one European species (coal tit Periparus ater L.), which is absent from these habitats. The mobbing call attracted 689 birds of 17 species, which represented 31% to 95% of the forest bird species that we detected in point counts at the same study plots. Bird reactions to mobbing calls were affected by the status and season, depending on forest type. Our results show that responses were stronger in forests with developed understory in comparison to forests with no understory, especially in winter. The highest number of responders and highest species richness of responders were observed in winter. P. major calls generated more interspecific than intraspecific responses, whereas S. melanocephala calls generated equal levels of inter- and intraspecific reactions. Both species generated different response patterns across the three forest habitat types. The response level of responders is higher when the mobbing calls are issued by local species rather than the P. ater. In winter, the response of non-resident species was higher than of resident species. Based on these results, we encourage the managers to maintain well-established understory vegetation, with special attention to the shrubs layer, to promote species diversity and rich behavioral responses of birds in the conifer forests in the eastern Mediterranean region.

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Mobbing behaviour in a passerine community increases with prevalence in predator diet

Cited by 29 publications

References 50 publications

Syntax manipulation changes perception of mobbing call sequences across passerine species

Syntax manipulation changes perception of mobbing call sequences across passerine species

Antioxidant Enzyme Activities Vary with Predation Risk and Environmental Conditions in Free-Living Passerine Birds

The Effect of Pine Forest Structure on Bird-Mobbing Behavior: From Individual Response to Community Composition

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