Small Song Repertoires and High Rate of Song-Type Sharing among Canyon Wrens

Abstract

The song of the Canyon Wren (Catherpes mexicanus) is widely recognized but poorly studied. Here we present the first comprehensive description of Canyon Wren song, including data from a focused study in northern Colorado and data from songs recorded across the species' geographic range. Both male and female Canyon Wrens produce a stereotyped contact call and sex-specific song. females sing infrequently, using a single song type. Males typically sing five song types, all consisting of a descending cascade of notes to which they variably append up to seven broadband notes. Songs are delivered with eventual variety in bouts that include an average of 4.6 repetitions of one song type, with temporal breaks between bouts. in the population we studied most song types were widely shared and males' repertoires overlapped by 94%. Some song types are apparently geographically restricted, while others are sung across large areas of the species' range. Overall, our results suggest that the Canyon Wren's song repertoires are relatively small compared with those of other wrens and that overlap of individuals' repertoires is high. local and rangewide stability of certain song types may reflect high fidelity of copying during learning, this stability may be favored by ecological and life-history traits including low density of territories, lack of migration, and long-term monogamy.pequeño Repertorio de Canciones y alta Tasa de intercambio del Tipo de Canción entre individuos de Catherpes mexicanusResumen. El canto de Catherpes mexicanus es reconocido ampliamente pero está poco estudiado. aquí presentamos la primera descripción exhaustiva del canto de C. mexicanus, incluyendo datos de un estudio focal en el norte de Colorado y datos de cantos registrados a lo largo del rango geográfico de la especie. Tanto los machos como las hembras de C. mexicanus producen un llamado de contacto estereotipado y un canto específico del sexo. las hembras cantan de modo infrecuente, usando un tipo único de canto. los machos típicamente cantan cinco tipos de cantos, todos consistentes en una cascada descendente de notas a los que se anexan de modo variable hasta siete notas de banda ancha. los cantos son entregados con una variedad eventual en tandas que incluyen un promedio de 4.6 repeticiones de un tipo de canto, con cortes temporales entre tandas. En la población que estudiamos la mayoría de los tipos de cantos fueron ampliamente compartidos y los repertorios de los machos se superpusieron en un 94%. algunos tipos de cantos están aparentemente restringidos geográficamente, mientras que otros son cantados a lo largo de grandes áreas del rango de la especie. En general, nuestros resultados sugieren que los repertorios de cantos de Catherpes mexicanus son relativamente pequeños comparados con aquellos de otras especies de Catherpes y que la superposición de los repertorios de los individuos es alta. la estabilidad local y a lo largo del rango de ciertos tipos de cantos puede reflejar una alta fidelidad de copiado durante el aprendizaje, esta estabil...

Female bird song rates do not covary with population density in a North American species

“…We rotated through these eight individual tracks between playback trials. All stimuli were recorded in Colorado and were the same song type (Benedict et al, 2013). We presented stimuli to different test subjects in a fixed order, using one track per experiment, but due to technical difficulties, one track was repeated in ten playbacks out of 24 in Arizona.…”

“…Despite that, some have very well‐described functions; house and canyon wren females use songs to defend territories against conspecifics, particularly other females (Hathcock & Benedict, 2018; Krieg & Burnett, 2017; Krieg & Getty, 2016). Canyon wren female songs are distinct in form from male songs, creating the possibility for conspicuous sex‐specific signaling (Benedict et al, 2013; Figure 1). In one low‐density population, canyon wren females rarely sang spontaneously but sang reliably and often to defend resources when hearing conspecific female song playback (Hathcock & Benedict, 2018).…”

Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song

“…Indeed, given the widespread evidence for birdsong aesthetics in other songbird species (Doolittle and Brum, 2012;Doolittle et al, 2014;Rothenberg et al, 2014;Janney et al, 2016;Taylor, 2017;Roeske et al, 2018;Rothenberg, 2019), it seems more likely that mockingbirds have an aesthetic sense. And it is conceivable that morphing is a common aesthetic strategy that may apply to many species: For instance, Black-capped chickadees are known to transpose pitch of their fee-bee song (Horn et al, 1992;Gammon and Baker, 2004); Field sparrows speed up their syllables (similar to the morphing mode "squeeze, " Nelson and Croner, 1991), and Canyon wrens slow their syllables down (as in morphing mode "stretch, " Benedict et al, 2013).…”

Form and Function Predict Acoustic Transmission Properties of the Songs of Male and Female Canyon Wrens

“…For each pair we created a track containing the best quality recorded song for the male and another track containing the best quality recorded song for the female. This led to inclusion of seven different male song cascade types (Benedict et al, 2013). Using Audacity, 1 we normalized each track to a peak amplitude of −0.5 dB, and filtered background noise using the "noise reduction" tool with a 20 dB reduction and a 1-s Noise Profile from immediately preceding the song in each recording (sensitivity = 6.0, 3 frequency smoothing bands).…”

“…Canyon wrens (Catherpes mexicanus) are monomorphic, year-round residents in Western North America that live in monogamous territorial pairs (Jones and Dieni, 2020). Males use song as a broadcast signal of territory occupation and sing frequently throughout the breeding season (Benedict et al, 2013;Rose, 2013). Females almost never sing spontaneous broadcast song, but do use song to defend resources; they are quick to sing when challenged on their territories by conspecific female song (Hathcock and Benedict, 2018;Dargis et al, 2021).…”