Song Learning, Early Nutrition and Sexual Selection in Songbirds

Nowicki, Stephen; Peters, Susan; Podos, Jeffrey

doi:10.1093/icb/38.1.179

Cited by 416 publications

(326 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Larger males may have advantages in territorial contests, which often include extensive fights and, thus, obtain better territories. Larger body size may also reflect better conditions during early development (Horak, 1994;Nowicki et al, 1998). Similar results have been found in whitethroats (correlations between wing length and repertoire size, but not tarsus, Balsby, 2000) and nightingales (correlations between wing length and repertoire size, ; both of them are species with very large repertoires.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

“…Thus, adult repertoire size may inform about an individual's ability to cope with developmental stress and, thus, about aspects of his genotypic quality (Nowicki et al, 1998). Since individuals that coped better with developmental stress may also develop better general phenotypic condition, adult repertoire size may also inform about phenotypic condition (Nowicki et al, 1998). At the same time, nutritional stress early in life can result in smaller adult body sizes (Nowicki et al, 1998) and explain the found correlations between body size and repertoire size.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The 'nutritional stress hypothesis' (Nowicki et al, 1998), or, broader, 'developmental stress hypothesis' (Buchanan et al, 2003) suggests that this link may be found in the early development. The high vocal centre (HVC) and other song nuclei crucially involved in song learning develop during an early post-hatching phase in which birds are likely to experience nutritional and other kinds of stress (Nowicki et al, 1998(Nowicki et al, , 2002. Recent studies showed that birds that experienced nutritional and other kinds of stress in fledgling age indeed had smaller adult song nuclei (Nowicki et al, 2002;Buchanan et al, 2004;Spencer et al, 2005) and developed smaller adult repertoires (Nowicki et al, 2002;Spencer et al, 2004, but see Brumm et al, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies showed that birds that experienced nutritional and other kinds of stress in fledgling age indeed had smaller adult song nuclei (Nowicki et al, 2002;Buchanan et al, 2004;Spencer et al, 2005) and developed smaller adult repertoires (Nowicki et al, 2002;Spencer et al, 2004, but see Brumm et al, 2009). Thus, adult repertoire size may inform about an individual's ability to cope with developmental stress and, thus, about aspects of his genotypic quality (Nowicki et al, 1998). Since individuals that coped better with developmental stress may also develop better general phenotypic condition, adult repertoire size may also inform about phenotypic condition (Nowicki et al, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Song repertoire size correlates with measures of body size in Eurasian blackbirds

Hesler¹,

Mundry²,

Sacher³

et al. 2012

Behav

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In most oscine bird species males possess a repertoire of different song patterns. The size of these repertoires is assumed to serve as an honest signal of male quality. The Eurasian blackbird's (Turdus merula) song contains a large repertoire of different element types with a flexible song organisation. Here we investigated whether repertoire size in Eurasian blackbirds correlates with measures of body size, namely length of wing, 8th primary, beak and tarsus. So far, very few studies have investigated species with large repertoires and a flexible song organisation in this context. We found positive correlations, meaning that larger males had larger repertoires. Larger males may have better fighting abilities and, thus, advantages in territorial defence. Larger structural body size may also reflect better conditions during early development. Therefore, under the assumption that body size is linked to overall male quality, our results are in accordance with the hypothesis that repertoire size represents an honest signal in Eurasian blackbirds that has evolved in response to sexual selection.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Song repertoire size correlates with measures of body size in Eurasian blackbirds

Hesler¹,

Mundry²,

Sacher³

et al. 2012

Behav

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The acoustic features of songs have been shown to reflect various properties of potential mates, such as early developmental conditions (Nowicki et al, 1998;Buchanan et al, 2003;Spencer et al, 2003;Soma et al, 2006;Zann & Cash, 2007), body condition (Lampe & Espmark, 1994;Hoi-Leitner et al, 1995;Kipper et al, 2006), genetic quality (Hasselquist et al, 1996), and parental care (Welling et al, 1997;Buchanan & Catchpole, 2000). Because these qualities and conditions of individuals are likely to affect their offspring either directly (e.g., through resource provisioning) or indirectly (i.e., genetically), the song quality of the father can be used as a factor to predict offspring fitness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential allocation in relation to mate song quality in the Bengalese finch

Soma

Okanoya

2013

Behav

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Postmating sexual selection plays an important part in the evolution of secondary sexual characters. Based on differential allocation theory that predicts biased reproductive investment of females depending on the attractiveness of mates, a number of previous studies have shown that egg production is related in various ways to ornamental sexual traits of males, but evidence for behavioral sexual traits is less abundant. In this study we examine such maternal effects in relation to birdsong.Because the Bengalese finch is a monomorphic songbird, courtship song serves a key role in mate choice. To take into account individual female differences in egg production performance, we sequentially paired naïve, captive, female Bengalese finches to two different males, and investigated if their reproductive investment (clutch size, egg mass and hatchling sex ratio) was related to the song traits of their mates. We found that clutch size and egg mass were highly repeatable within individual females while sex ratio was not. Despite the inflexibility of egg mass within each female, egg mass increased when females were mated to males with longer songs. In addition, we found a non-significant weak tendency toward male-biased sex ratio in relation to longer song duration of mates. Our findings suggest that females mated to better mates adjusted their reproductive investment by producing heavier eggs and possibly offspring of the more costly sex.

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