Nonpasserine bird produces soft calls and pays retaliation cost

Ręk, Paweł; Osiejuk, Tomasz S.

doi:10.1093/beheco/arr027

Cited by 58 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…We observed gurgling-mewing calls during the playback (26 cases) but never before the playback. Gurgling-mewing calls appear to be the equivalent of quiet or soft songs in passerine birds and are also a signal of the aggressive motivation of males (Ręk and Osiejuk 2011b). Both the cracking and the gurgling-mewing calls indicate an increase in the aggressiveness of the territory holder during the playback experiment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Neighbour–stranger call discrimination in a nocturnal rail species, the Corncrake Crex crex

Budka

Osiejuk

2013

J Ornithol

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The acoustic signals of birds are commonly used for individual recognition. Calls or songs allow discrimination between parent and offspring, between mates and between territorial neighbours and strangers. In this study, we investigated vocal neighbour-stranger discrimination in a nocturnally calling rail species, the Corncrake, Crex crex. We conducted interactive playback experiments with 43 males. All males were tested twice on the same night, and their responses to the calls of a familiar neighbour and the calls of an unfamiliar stranger were measured. The Corncrake males responded more aggressively to the playback of a stranger's calls. They approached the speaker more rapidly, spent more time close to the speaker and physically attacked the speaker more frequently. We found no significant differences between the vocal responses to the playback of neighbours' and strangers' calls. Thus, although calling plays an important role in Corncrake territorial interactions, it is only a first line of defence in which males signal aggression towards intruders by calling, similar to singing in passerines. The lack of differences in vocal responses and the presence of clear differences in other behavioural responses demonstrate that the absence of a differential vocal response does not imply the absence of discrimination. Although the individual nature of the Corncrake call has been mentioned in a few previous studies, this study provides the first experimental evidence that Corncrake males indeed use calls for neighbour-stranger discrimination.Notably, because of the Corncrake's dense wet meadow habitat and its tendency to signal at night, it is probable that acoustic individual discrimination in the Corncrake is crucial for making correct decisions during aggressive encounters with rivals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Such an experimental approach, in which the tested male determines the length of the playback he receives, reflects the best natural mode of interaction between real rivals. A similar approach has been used successfully in playback experiments with Corncrake (Ręk and Osiejuk 2011b).…”

Section: Experimental Design and Playback Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighbour–stranger call discrimination in a nocturnal rail species, the Corncrake Crex crex

Budka

Osiejuk

2013

J Ornithol

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“…Alternatively, males may also gain a fitness benefit from broadly advertising their agonistic interactions if they are a dominant male and females eavesdrop on aggressive interactions, which has been shown in both socially monogamous (Otter et al 1999;Mennill et al 2002) and polygynous (Doutrelant and McGregor 2000;Aquiloni et al 2008) species. Currently, low-amplitude songs that function in aggression have been identified only in pairbonding songbirds (but also see Ręk and Osiejuk 2011), suggesting that there may be a cost to broadcasting aggressive interactions when pair bonding occurs. Crickets, in contrast, do not form lasting pair bonds and do not produce low-amplitude aggressive songs but instead produce high-amplitude aggressive songs during male-male interactions (Zuk and Simmons 1997).…”

Section: Why Sing Softly?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Deciphering Information Encoded in Birdsong: Male Songbirds with Fertile Mates Respond Most Strongly to Complex, Low-Amplitude Songs Used in Courtship

Reichard

Rice

Vanderbilt

et al. 2011

The American Naturalist

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. We compared responses of males whose mates were fertile or nonfertile with differences in song structure (SRS vs. LRS and soft LRS), amplitude (SRS and soft LRS vs. LRS), and tempo (slow SRS vs. fast SRS). Males responded more strongly to SRS than to LRS or soft LRS, indicating that song structure had a greater effect on response than song amplitude. SRS tempo did not detectably affect male response. Importantly, males responded more strongly to SRS when their mates were fertile, presumably because hearing SRS can indicate that a male's mate is being courted by an intruding male and a strong response can deter extrapair competitors. We conclude that lowamplitude songs can function in both inter-and intrasexual communication and should receive greater attention in future studies of mate choice and male-male competition.

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“…Available evidence suggests that black-throated blue warblers can use two vocal signal attributes to convey information about aggressive motivation. First, they can sing songs at varying amplitudes, and a prior experimental study showed that low-amplitude 'soft' song in this species is an extremely reliable predictor of attack [25], a result parallel to those emerging in studies of other birds [21,24,30] as well as anurans [31,32]. Second, blackthroated blue warblers might convey information about aggressive motivation by modulating their use of distinct song types, as suggested for other avian species [33][34][35][36][37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Escalation of aggressive vocal signals: a sequential playback study

Hof

Podos

2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Rival conspecifics often produce stereotyped sequences of signals as agonistic interactions escalate. Successive signals in sequence are thought to convey increasingly pronounced levels of aggressive motivation. Here, we propose and test a model of aggressive escalation in black-throated blue warblers, presenting subjects with two sequential and increasingly elevated levels of threat. From a speaker outside the territorial boundary, we initiated an interaction (low-threat level), and from a second speaker inside the territory, accompanied by a taxidermic mount, we subsequently simulated a territorial intrusion (escalated threat level). Our two main predictions were that signalling behaviours in response to low-threat boundary playback would predict signalling responses to the escalated within-territory threat, and that these latter signalling behaviours would in turn reliably predict attack. We find clear support for both predictions: (i) specific song types (type II songs) produced early in the simulated interaction, in response to boundary playback, predicted later use of low-amplitude 'soft' song, in response to withinterritory playback; and (ii) soft song, in turn, predicted attack of the mount. Unexpectedly, use of the early-stage signal (type II song) itself did not predict attack, despite its apparent role in aggressive escalation. This raises the intriguing question of whether type II song can actually be considered a reliable aggressive signal. Overall, our results provide new empirical insights into how songbirds may use progressive vocal signalling to convey increasing levels of threat.

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Nonpasserine bird produces soft calls and pays retaliation cost

Cited by 58 publications

References 35 publications

Neighbour–stranger call discrimination in a nocturnal rail species, the Corncrake Crex crex

Neighbour–stranger call discrimination in a nocturnal rail species, the Corncrake Crex crex

Deciphering Information Encoded in Birdsong: Male Songbirds with Fertile Mates Respond Most Strongly to Complex, Low-Amplitude Songs Used in Courtship

Escalation of aggressive vocal signals: a sequential playback study

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