Response of territorial male song sparrows to song types and variations

Stoddard, Philip K.; Beecher, Michael D.; Willis, Mary S.

doi:10.1007/bf00303547

Cited by 85 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…However, direct contact with the audience may not be necessary for the audience to be apparent. For example, chemical cues from another male induce changes in the courtship displays of male newts (Lissotriton boscai; Aragón, 2009), birds robustly respond to playbacks of conspecific vocalizations (Stoddard et al, 1991(Stoddard et al, , 1988, and humans behave more generously in an economic game when shown stylized visual cues of an observer (Haley and Fessler, 2005). In our experiments we replaced a male audience with male odor (urine or body odor), playbacks of male USVs or an anesthetized male (mixture of tactile and body odor cues) to test whether any of these cues are sufficient to produce an audience effect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for an audience effect in mice: male social partners alter the male vocal response to female cues

Seagraves

Arthur

Egnor

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Mice (Mus musculus) form large and dynamic social groups and emit ultrasonic vocalizations in a variety of social contexts. Surprisingly, these vocalizations have been studied almost exclusively in the context of cues from only one social partner, despite the observation that in many social species the presence of additional listeners changes the structure of communication signals. Here, we show that male vocal behavior elicited by female odor is affected by the presence of a male audience -with changes in vocalization count, acoustic structure and syllable complexity. We further show that single sensory cues are not sufficient to elicit this audience effect, indicating that multiple cues may be necessary for an audience to be apparent. Together, these experiments reveal that some features of mouse vocal behavior are only expressed in more complex social situations, and introduce a powerful new assay for measuring detection of the presence of social partners in mice.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for an audience effect in mice: male social partners alter the male vocal response to female cues

Seagraves

Arthur

Egnor

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…In fact, in our lab we prefer the 150Hz filter for song birds such as Indigo Buntings and Song Sparrows (cf. Stoddard et al 1988). Moreover, the analysis argues against the natural tendency to use a "standard" setting across different species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectrographic Analysis of Animal Vocalizations: Implications of the “Uncertainty Principle”

Beecher

1988

Bioacoustics

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Many animal vocalizations are non-periodic, frequency-modulated signals. Because this type of signal varies simultaneously in two dimensions, time and frequency, spectrographic measurement is constrained by the "uncertainty principle": to increase accuracy of measurement in one dimension we must sacrifice accuracy of measurement in the other dimension. Although this trade-off is unavoidable, inherent in the measurement of frequency, for any particular frequency-modulated, non-periodic signal, there is an intermediate, optimal setting of spectrographic bandwidth, equal to the square root of the average rate of change of the measured signal. This optimal bandwidth minimizes the time· frequency smear, and thus permits the most accurate measurement of the instantaneous frequency. Investigators analyzing the microstructure of animal vocal signals therefore should choose their analyzer bandwidths to match the signals under study.

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“…In most cases the test birds started responding 370 earlier, meaning that their first response cannot have been based on the repertoire size 371 broadcast. However, during the rest of the playback and in the period afterwards they 372 could have adjusted their response if the perceived threat was dependent on repertoire 373 size, as described by Stoddard et al (1988) for song sparrows. Nevertheless, even if the 374 test birds were able to distinguish between the two repertoire sizes, the magnitude of 375 response was similar during the broadcasting of both repertoire sizes.…”

Section: Statistical Analyses 264mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only a few studies have tested 62 the direct response to different repertoire sizes, leading to ambiguous results. In a two 63 speaker experiment, male territorial field sparrows Spizella pusilla approached closer to 64 the speaker playing larger repertoires (Searcy 1983), and male song sparrows Melospiza4 melodia reacted more persistently to playback of larger repertoires (Stoddard et al 1988). 66 However, in other experiments -even one conducted with song sparrows -the reaction 67 of male birds did not vary in accordance with different repertoire sizes (song sparrow, 68 Searcy 1983; sedge warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus, Catchpole 1989).…”

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confidence: 96%

Does song repertoire size in Common Blackbirds play a role in an intra-sexual context?

Hesler¹,

Mundry²,

Dabelsteen³

2010

J Ornithol

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International audienceBird song is thought to have a function in both inter- and intra-sexual contexts with song complexity serving as an honest signal of male quality. Theory predicts that males use repertoire sizes to estimate rivals' fighting ability. Here we tested whether element repertoire size plays a role in an intra-sexual context in the Common Blackbird , a songbird with a large repertoire. In a territory intrusion playback experiment, we broadcast Common Blackbird song with different element repertoire sizes to territorial males. The test birds did not respond differently to the different repertoire sizes. This was also the case when we considered the test birds' own repertoire sizes in the analysis. Thus, we found no evidence for the hypothesis that males use repertoire size for estimating rivals' fighting force. However, this does not exclude the possibility that repertoire size plays a role in different intra-sexual contexts in Common Blackbirds. In the discussion, we address alternative scenarios

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Response of territorial male song sparrows to song types and variations

Cited by 85 publications

References 16 publications

Evidence for an audience effect in mice: male social partners alter the male vocal response to female cues

Evidence for an audience effect in mice: male social partners alter the male vocal response to female cues

Spectrographic Analysis of Animal Vocalizations: Implications of the “Uncertainty Principle”

Does song repertoire size in Common Blackbirds play a role in an intra-sexual context?

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