Passive acoustic monitoring gives new insight into year-round duetting behaviour of a tropical songbird

Szymański, Paweł; Olszowiak, Katarzyna; Wheeldon, Amie; Budka, Michał; Osiejuk, Tomasz S.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107271

Cited by 31 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 58 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Birds responded faster to the HC than the LC type, as well as staying at a larger distance from the speakers in the LC treatment. These results are very interesting when compared to what is already known about the amount of song type usage while naturally singing during the peak of the breeding season ( Wheeldon et al 2020 ) as well as in a year-round context ( Szymański et al 2021 ). The song type H is definitely the most commonly used by males when breeding (42.3% of all males’ song bouts), mostly as solos, as females only join males to form duets in 26.7% of H bouts (details in Wheeldon et al 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…The song type L is generally less commonly used by males in solos but is more often (than H) answered by females to form a duet (64.6%; Wheeldon et al 2020 ). Also the year-round monitoring of vocal activity revealed that the L song type is most often found in duets in comparison to the other two male song types ( Szymański et al 2021 ). Therefore, intrusion of a stranger pair with the LC duet (as this study’s data suggest) might be treated by territorial pairs in two ways: 1) as an incidental intrusion of a pair with members trying to communicate with each other or as 2) a well-coordinated, and thus dangerous, intrusion of pair intruders.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They have very small and sex-specific vocal repertoires, with males producing whistles and females atonal and harsh notes ( Riegert et al 2004 ; Fry 2020 ; Wheeldon et al 2020 ; see the Supplementary Video ). Males are much more vocal than females and most of the overall singing activity is due to the male solos and duets initiated and led by males ( Wheeldon et al 2020 , 2021 ; Szymański et al 2021 ). The majority of duets (85%) consist of a male phrase, followed by a female phrase, partially overlapping her mate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Song bouts of male solos and duets are loud (90–103 dB SPL at 1 m) and on average relatively short (24–30 s), but in some situations, they can last for several minutes. Males usually sing a single song type within a bout but they use all three types of their sex-specific signals during the whole day activity and the whole year activity without any clear time pattern ( Wheeldon et al 2020 ; Szymański et al 2021 ). There are only a few exceptions to this.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, males usually start the dawn chorus with a solo vocalization and they more often than expected by chance start it with the most rarely used song phrase W (~64% vs. expected 15%). However, this song type is not used exclusively during the dawn chorus ( Wheeldon et al 2020 ; Szymański et al 2021 ). Although male song phrases are shared by all individuals within the local population, they have an individually specific structure facilitating individual recognition ( Linhart et al 2019 ; Wheeldon et al 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Song type and song type matching are important for joint territorial defense in a duetting songbird

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Birds have a diverse acoustic communication system, with species-specific repertoires facilitating more complex behaviors in terms of both within- and between-pair communications. Certain song types are produced for specific functions, such as aggressive encounters. In addition, song matching behaviors, whereby neighboring individuals match song types, can be used in aggressive interactions as a sophisticated acoustic behavior. In this study, we examined the functions of song types, in a duet context, of male yellow-breasted boubous (Laniarius atroflavus), an Afromontane bush-shrike with a vocal sexual dimorphism. We aimed at assessing whether, structurally, certain song types elicited a heightened reaction than others and also whether song matching affected response behavior. A dual speaker playback procedure was performed for 18 pairs of boubous, each pair being exposed to duets with three different male song types. We found differences in response toward the different duet types but these differences resulted from the amount at which males matched different song types. Pairs responded stronger when a focal male matched the playback type, and matching was significantly more often found in cases where the rarest type of male song was used. We found no sex differences in terms of response strength to playback type. Our results indicate a two-level way of coding aggression toward intruding pairs. The yellow-breasted boubous utilize their repertoires, linking matching with structure in order to show aggression in terms of territory defense and sexual conflict. This study also confirms joint territorial defense as a main function of duets in this species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Song type and song type matching are important for joint territorial defense in a duetting songbird

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Bird Identification from the Thamnophilidae Family at the Andean Region of Colombia

Ortega

Sarria-Paja

2022

Computer Information Systems and Industrial Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Seasonal and diurnal variation of vocal behaviour in duetting White-browed Sparrow Weavers

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Singing in tropical and Southern hemisphere birds often occurs throughout the year in the form of duetting, which is thought to be associated with year-round territoriality. Whitebrowed Sparrow Weavers (Plocepasser mahali) are cooperatively breeding songbirds of Eastern and Southern Africa, which live in groups of 2-10 individuals and defend all-purpose territories year-round. Their vocal behaviour is extraordinary as all group members sing duet and chorus song, but the dominant male of the group, additionally, sings a long solo song at dawn that comprises a distinct syllable repertoire. To gain further insight into the functions of the different types of song, the present study aimed at providing detailed quantitative data on diurnal and seasonal variation in singing activity. Therefore, we monitored the song behaviour of five groups of White-browed Sparrow Weavers at several time points during the course of the day and during the course of the year in relation to the groups' breeding activities and environmental variables such as photoperiod, temperature and rainfall. Diurnally, solo song was heard exclusively during the first hour of vocalization in the morning before the onset of duetting. Seasonally, solo singing was restricted to the summer months. No tight link with breeding activities was found. Solo song duration was related to the density of neighbouring groups but not to group size. Similarly, duet/chorus rate showed large variation between groups and was related to the density of neighbouring groups. Diurnally, duet/chorus rate was significantly higher at the time point wake-up than at other times of the day. Seasonally, there was no difference. The increased singing rate at the time point wake-up, when all birds are present in the territory, suggests that these songs might convey information about territory ownership, group size as well as sex and status of the individuals.

show abstract

Passive acoustic monitoring gives new insight into year-round duetting behaviour of a tropical songbird

Cited by 31 publications

References 58 publications

Song type and song type matching are important for joint territorial defense in a duetting songbird

Song type and song type matching are important for joint territorial defense in a duetting songbird

Bird Identification from the Thamnophilidae Family at the Andean Region of Colombia

Seasonal and diurnal variation of vocal behaviour in duetting White-browed Sparrow Weavers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About