Individual-specific associations between warble song notes and body movements in budgerigar courtship displays

Abstract

Complex behavioral sequences such as courtship displays are often multimodal, and coordination between modalities is critically important. In learned and variable behavioral sequences such as songs, individual variability may also extend to multimodal coordination and the associations between modalities. However, individual variability in complex multimodal sequences and in coordination between distinct behaviors remains underexplored. Here, we report that budgerigars, which continuously learn and modify their complex warble songs, exhibit associations between body movements and song notes during courtship. Some associations are unique to individuals, and others are universal across individuals. Additionally, some individuals exhibit more unique associations than others. We also find that birds warbling in the absence of body movements emit all notes with broadly similar odds ratios. Our data suggests a hierarchy of associations, some individual-specific and others common to all individuals, between body movements and songs. We propose that these associations may be learnt and modified through social interactions, resulting in individual variability.