Song function and territoriality in male and female White-throated Dippers Cinclus cinclus

Abstract

Capsule: Male White-throated Dippers Cinclus cinclus are more likely and quicker to respond to the playback of song than females, but both sexes are more likely to respond before the onset of breeding than after. Aims: Territoriality and the function of song in female birds have rarely been studied outside of the tropics or Australasia. We investigated territoriality and song function in males and females of a Northern temperate species, the White-throated Dipper. Methods: We conducted playback trials on established pairs and compared the responses of males and females according to the sex of the simulated intruder and the timing of playback relative to the onset of breeding. A response was classified as movement towards the speaker, singing or both. Results: Males were significantly more likely and quicker to respond to playback than females, but neither sex responded differently to the playback of male and female song. Both sexes were more likely to respond to playback before breeding had begun than after. Conclusions: Our results suggest that both males and females are territorial but that males take the dominant role in defence. Female song appears to elicit a similar response to male song and may play a role in territoriality or mate defence.

Frequent female song in blue tits: behavioural context suggests a role in intrasexual competition

“…Females, like males, were regularly observed producing solo songs and also singing during agonistic interactions. Both contexts are in line with a possible territorial function of female song (Langmore 1998) that has been demonstrated in several species using playback experiments (Cooney and Cockburn 1995;Hoelzel 1986;Krieg and Getty 2016;Magoolagan and Sharp 2018). The fact that both sexes use the same song types can also facilitate joint territory defence since song type matching is an aggressive signal in this and related species (Krebs et al 1981;Langemann et al 2000;Poesel and Dabelsteen 2005).…”

Female blue tits sing frequently: a sex comparison of occurrence, context, and structure of song

“…The other two frequent contexts of female song were agonistic interactions and solo singing, which could indicate a function for female song in territory defense or mate attraction (Langmore 1998;Mikula et al 2020;Austin et al 2021). A territorial function of female song has been demonstrated in several species using playback experiments (Hoelzel 1986;Cooney and Cockburn 1995;Krieg and Getty 2016;Magoolagan and Sharp 2018). The observation that both sexes use the same song types could facilitate intersexual interactions in such agonistic context, since song type matching is an aggressive signal in this and related species (Krebs et al 1981;Langemann et al 2000;Poesel and Dabelsteen 2005).…”

“…However, the evolutionary importance of female song seems to be underestimated, perhaps due to sampling biases (Garamszegi et al 2007), for example by sexing a singing bird as male, especially in unmarked populations of monomorphic species (Eens and Pinxten 1998;Odom and Benedict 2018). To date, there have only been few systematic studies in Northern temperate regions that quantify female song and its functions (discussed in detail in Garamszegi et al 2007;Riebel et al 2019, but see for some notable exceptions Beletsky 1982;Baptista and Petrinovich 1986;Johnson and Kermott 1990;Hausberger and Black 1991;Baptista et al 1993;Langmore et al 1996;Yamaguchi 1998;Magoolagan and Sharp 2018;Wilkins et al 2020;and Patchett et al 2021; for descriptive studies of female song in Northern temperate regions). Importantly, by showing functional female song, these studies highlight the need to increase documentation and quantitative analyses of female song.…”