Nestling growth and song repertoire size in great reed warblers: evidence for song learning as an indicator mechanism in mate choice

Abstract

Females of many songbird species show a preference for mating with males that have larger song repertoires, but the advantages associated with this preference are uncertain. We tested the hypothesis that song complexity can serve as an indicator of male quality because the development of the brain regions underlying song learning and production occurs when young birds typically face nutritional and other stresses, so that song re£ects how well a male fared during post-hatch development. A key prediction of this hypothesis is that variation in nestling condition should correspond to variation in the adult song repertoires of individuals. We used data from a long-term study of the great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) to test this prediction, correlating two measures of nestling development with subsequent repertoire size of males. We found that the length of the innermost primary feather, a standard measure of development, signi¢cantly predicted ¢rst-year repertoire size. The relationship between repertoire size and body mass was nearly signi¢cant, in spite of the large variance inherent in this measure. These data support the idea that song may provide females with information about a male's response to developmental stress, which in turn is expected to correlate with indirect or direct bene¢ts she might receive.

Transgenerational body size effects caused by early developmental stress in zebra finches

“…their offspring. Previous studies of birds showed effects of such early developmental stress on an individual's phenotype (de Kogel & Prijs 1996;Nowicki et al 2000;Spencer et al 2003;Naguib et al 2004) and survival (de Kogel 1997), but it has remained unclear whether or not such effects have further consequences for the subsequent offspring. Experiments in collared Table 1.…”

Are bird song complexity and song sharing shaped by habitat structure? An information theory and statistical approach

“…Various modes of repertoire acquisition exist: repertoire size appears to be partially under 55 genetic control, at least in some species (Marler and Sherman, 1985), and may depend on 56 condition during development of young males (Nowicki et al, 2000;Buchanan et al, 57 animal species' habitat in patches separated by relatively inhospitable terrain. There is 82 considerable evidence that habitat fragmentation can cause declines in avian populations 83 (Bender et al, 1998;Schmiegelow and Monkkonen, 2002).…”

Temporal patterns of nutrition dependence in secondary sexual traits and their varying impacts on male mating success

“…However, these trends in dietary life-history effects on behavioral and morphological traits are far from universal. Juvenile diet may affect adult behavior by having an impact on neurological development (Nowicki, Hasselquist, Bensch, & Peters, 2000; e.g. the developmental stress hypothesis, reviewed in Spencer & MacDougall-Shackleton, 2011) or by influencing the development of morphological traits associated with the production of the behavioral display (e.g.…”