Tuning towards tomorrow? Common nightingales <i>Luscinia megarhynchos</i> change and increase their song repertoires from the first to the second breeding season

Kiefer, Sarah M.; Sommer, Christina; Scharff, Constance; Kipper, Silke; Mundry, Roger

doi:10.1111/j.1600-048x.2009.04500.x

Cited by 31 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In a cross-sectional comparison, Kiefer et al (2006) showed that 1-year old males had smaller repertoires than older males. This result was confirmed by a subsequent longitudinal study (Kiefer et al 2009) showing that 1-year-old males had an increased repertoire the next year.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Element repertoire: change and development with age in Whitethroat Sylvia communis song

Balsby

Hansen

2009

J Ornithol

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Song repertoires are often important determining factors in sexual selection. In several species, older males have larger repertoires than 1-year-old males. The development of large song repertoires by an individual is, however, poorly understood. We studied song element repertoire changes in five individual male Whitethroats Sylvia communis sampled as 1-and 2-year olds. These males increased the size of their element repertoire between their first and second year, but song length and number of different elements per song did not change. On average, 44.3% of the song elements in the first-year repertoire were also found in the second-year repertoire. Elements shared between years were found earlier in the songs and tended to occur in sequences. Sequences of shared elements also seemed to be conserved between years. The study suggests that the song element repertoire of the second year is partly based on the first-year repertoire, which may explain why large song repertoires are mainly expressed by males at least 2 years of age. It would appear, therefore, that song element repertoire size could be a reliable signal of male age.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Element repertoire: change and development with age in Whitethroat Sylvia communis song

Balsby

Hansen

2009

J Ornithol

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“…Common nightingales modify the repertoire composition between their first and second year to match those songs that are shared by most individuals within the population (Kiefer et al 2009;Kipper and Kiefer 2010). A similar process could take place in clay-colored thrushes, but more studies are needed to determine if syllable selection is arbitrary or not.…”

Section: Song Plasticity Between Successive Breeding Seasonsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Song plasticity over time and vocal learning in clay-colored thrushes

2015

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Songbirds have been traditionally classified into close-ended or open-ended learning species according to the length of the sensitive period during which birds are able to memorize new vocalizations. Closed-ended learners are generally not capable of changing their song after the first year of life, while open-ended learners show song plasticity as adults. A few Turdus species have been suggested to be open-ended learners, but no long-term study has been conducted to investigate their song plasticity over time. We analyzed the songs of clay-colored thrushes, T. grayi, over four successive breeding seasons to assess song plasticity in their syllable repertoires within and between breeding seasons. A total of 16,262 syllables were classified through visual inspection of spectrograms and multidimensional scaling analysis based on spectrogram correlations. On average, 563 ± 153 (SD) syllables per male per breeding season were analyzed. Male repertoire size was 9-20 syllable types. Males were capable of modifying their syllable repertoire between the initial and final periods of the breeding season. Song plasticity within breeding seasons may be associated with imitation between neighboring males, suggesting song learning in males that were ≥2 years old. This short-term plasticity is not enough, however, to explain the high proportion of change (mean = 65 % syllable types) in repertoire composition between breeding seasons in adult males. Song plasticity resulting from annual changes in repertoire composition could be explained by open-ended learning, but another mechanism, extended memory and re-expression, could also explain long-term plasticity. Experimental studies controlling the acoustic environment are needed to determine which mechanism is responsible for such a high level of song plasticity.

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“…Recordings were down-sampled to 22.05 kHz, high pass filtered (0.8 kHz, Butterworth) and amplitude normalized to 75 %. First, we determined repertoire sizes of all males via visual inspection of 533 consecutive songs, equalling approximately 1 h of singing, which has been proven to result in saturated repertoire curves (for details see [34, 35, 44]. Since nightingale song types have been assigned to song categories (e.g.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple song features are related to paternal effort in common nightingales

2015

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BackgroundSexual ornamentation may be related to the degree of paternal care and the ‘good-parent’ model predicts that male secondary characters honestly advertise paternal investment. In most birds, males are involved in bringing up the young and successful reproduction highly depends on male contribution during breeding. In passerines, male song is indicative of male attributes and for few species it has been shown that song features also signal paternal investment to females. Males of nightingales Luscinia megarhynchos are famous for their elaborate singing but so far there is only little knowledge on the role of male song in intersexual communication, and it is unknown whether male song predicts male parenting abilities.ResultsUsing RFID technology to record male feeding visits to the nest, we found that nightingale males substantially contribute to chick feeding. Also, we analyzed male nocturnal song with focus on song features that have been shown to signal male quality before. We found that several song features, namely measures of song complexity and song sequencing, were correlated with male feeding rates. Moreover, the combination of these song features had strong predictive power for male contribution to nestling feeding.ConclusionsSince male nightingales are involved in chick rearing, paternal investment might be a crucial variable for female mate choice in this species. Females may assess future paternal care on the basis of song features identified in our study and thus these features may have evolved to signal direct benefits to females. Additionally we underline the importance of multiple acoustic cues for female mating decisions especially in species with complex song such as the nightingale.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-015-0390-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Tuning towards tomorrow? Common nightingales Luscinia megarhynchos change and increase their song repertoires from the first to the second breeding season

Cited by 31 publications

References 33 publications

Element repertoire: change and development with age in Whitethroat Sylvia communis song

Element repertoire: change and development with age in Whitethroat Sylvia communis song

Song plasticity over time and vocal learning in clay-colored thrushes

Multiple song features are related to paternal effort in common nightingales

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