Song repertoire size is correlated with body measures and arrival date in common nightingales, Luscinia megarhynchos

Kipper, Silke; Mundry, Roger; Sommer, Christina; Hultsch, Henrike; Todt, Dietmar

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.04.011

Cited by 91 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…This notion is in line with other recent findings on individual differences in vocal interactions in nightingales (Schmidt et al 2006. It is reasonable to assume that bigger and heavier birds are of higher quality because such individuals were found to arrive earlier in their breeding ground after migration, and they also had bigger song repertoires (Kipper et al 2006). Moreover, male nightingales that arrive earlier on their breeding 5 Maximum song levels of captive zebra finches (N=41 males) and a body size and b residual body mass (dB re.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Song amplitude and body size in birds

Brumm

2009

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Bird song is a sexually selected multidimensional signal. A fundamental question regarding the evolution of sexually selected signals is what information they convey and how their honesty is maintained. Song amplitude is a performance-related signal trait that varies considerably between individuals, but this signal dimension has been neglected in past studies. I found that median song amplitude in male nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) did not vary significantly with body size or residual body mass. In contrast, I found a significant negative correlation between body size (and also residual mass) and the maximum song amplitude during interactive singing in nightingales. However, the function of these more subtle differences in song amplitude remains to be investigated. By and large, the results of this study suggest that mean song amplitude is unlikely to indicate a bird's body size or current condition (measured as residual mass).

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Song amplitude and body size in birds

Brumm

2009

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…It would be very interesting to investigate, whether the correlations between repertoire size and body size that we found in our study population also exist in other blackbird populations. However, the fact that our finding is in line with other investigations of correlations between repertoire size and morphological measures in other species (Lampe & Espmark, 1994;Mountjoy & Lemon, 1996;Balsby, 2000;Kipper et al, 2006) may suggest that our findings are not specific to the island population we studied, but a more general trend.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Studies in several species found correlations between repertoire size and different aspects of male quality, e.g., between repertoire size and body condition (starling, Mountjoy & Lemon, 1996; sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus), Buchanan et al, 1999; song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), Reid et al, 2005;Pfaff et al, 2007;common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), Kipper et al, 2006), between repertoire size and body size (whitethroat (Sylvia communis) Balsby, 2000;common nightingale, Kipper et al, 2006), between repertoire size and age (e.g., common nightingale, Kiefer et al, 2006Kiefer et al, , 2009, but also between repertoire size and social status (starling, Spencer et al, 2004) or learning ability (zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), Boogert et al, 2008). According to these results, song repertoire size seems to be an indicator for different correlates of a male's general quality, and by choosing mates with large repertoires, females might obtain larger, healthier, or more experienced males.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…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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Song repertoire size is correlated with body measures and arrival date in common nightingales, Luscinia megarhynchos

Cited by 91 publications

References 59 publications

Song amplitude and body size in birds

Song amplitude and body size in birds

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

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

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