Phylogeny and species traits predict bird detectability

Abstract

Avian acoustic communication has resulted from evolutionary pressures and ecological constraints. We therefore expect that auditory detectability in birds might be predictable by species traits and phylogenetic relatedness. We evaluated the relationship between phylogeny, species traits, and field‐based estimates of the two processes that determine species detectability (singing rate and detection distance) for 141 bird species breeding in boreal North America. We used phylogenetic mixed models and cross‐validation to compare the relative merits of using trait data only, phylogeny only, or the combination of both to predict detectability. We found a strong phylogenetic signal in both singing rates and detection distances; however the strength of phylogenetic effects was less than expected under Brownian motion evolution. The evolution of behavioural traits that determine singing rates was found to be more labile, leaving more room for species to evolve independently, whereas detection distance was mostly determined by anatomy (i.e. body size) and thus the laws of physics. Our findings can help in disentangling how complex ecological and evolutionary mechanisms have shaped different aspects of detectability in boreal birds. Such information can greatly inform single‐ and multi‐species models but more work is required to better understand how to best correct possible biases in phylogenetic diversity and other community metrics.

Use of an acoustic location system to understand how presence of conspecifics and canopy cover influence Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla) space use near reclaimed wellsites in the boreal forest of Alberta

“…We determined the 95th percentile of movement rate by dividing the total distance that the bird moved during the visit, by the length of the visit. The 95th percentile of Ovenbird singing rate was determined from values of singing rate provided by the lhreg package in R (R Core Team 2017, Sólymos et al 2018). From these data, we determined that the 95th percentile of singing rate was 2.36 songs per minute or a song every 25.5 s. Within this 25.5 s interval, the 95% percentile of distance that Ovenbirds would move based on territory mapping data was 37.2 m. Using these values, we determined an estimate of the number of individuals (hereafter hypothesized individuals) at each site by identifying the maximum number of unique Ovenbird songs greater than 37.2 m apart from all other vocalizations that occurred during the 25.5 s time intervals (Fig.…”

Effects of off-highway vehicles on avian abundance and diversity in a designated vehicular recreation area

“…One drawback of the hierarchical community distance sampling is that it assumes each species parameter (e.g., detection probability) comes from a shared distribution of parameter values informed by the community, which draws species-level effects toward a community mean . However, detection radii may also be roughly predicted using species phylogeny or traits such as body mass (Sólymos et al 2018), potentially alleviating the issue of detection probabilities being drawn toward an overall (community) mean. The species-level responses of OHV use and OHV trail cover could be affected by the species assemblage of the model.…”

Birds of a feather flock together: Functionally similar vertebrates positively co‐occur in Guianan forests

“…, Sólymos et al. ). Smaller, solitary, and cryptic species are often less detected than larger, group‐living, and non‐cryptic species.…”