Strong Neighbor-Stranger Discrimination in Song Sparrows

Stoddard, Philip K.; Beecher, Michael D.; Horning, Cynthia L.; Willis, Mary S.

doi:10.2307/1368741

Cited by 88 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…[29][30][31]. A long-term mimicry advantage in our population is unlikely, however, given our finding that long-term neighbors can recognize one another on the basis of a single song type (32,33). Second, song sharing may provide an advantage in our population to a young bird in cooperative interactions with neighbors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Correlation of song learning and territoryestablishment strategies in the song sparrow.

Beecher

Campbell

Stoddard

1994

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

143

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In a field study, we show that a young song sparrow (i) selects his songs from three or four older birds who have neighboring territories, (ii) preferentially learns song types that these tutor neighbors share, and (ui) ultimately sets up his territory next to, or replaces, one of these tutor neighbors. The consequence of this song learning strategy is that the young bird's song repertoire represents the "logical intersection" of the song repertoires of his tutor neighbors. We argue that this repertoire is optimally designed for mimicry (sounding like your neighbors) and for communication between neighbors (song sparrows address or reply to a neighbor with a song they share with that neighbor).Song learning in passerine birds is a selective process in which the young bird retains in his final, adult repertoire only a fraction of the many song types to which he is exposed (1). Despite considerable theoretical interest in the design and function of song repertoires (2-6), however, little is known about the variables determining which of the "tutor" songs are selected for the song repertoire, other than that conspecific songs are preferred over heterospecific songs. To test the hypothesis that social variables are the key determinant of song selection, we studied song learning in a free-living population df song sparrows (Melospiza melodia).In this study, we tested a model of song learning derived from three sets of observations. First, in many (but not all) songbird species, birds share their song types with neighbors, with the resemblances in some cases being so close as to Suggest that one bird learned the song type from the other (7). Second, young male song sparrows, starting in the summer of their hatching year, "float" on the territories of several adjacent territorial males and eventually (usually by the following summer) try to set up a territory in this floater range (see refs. 8 and 9; unpublished observations). Third, in song sparrows (and many other songbirds) the early part of a bird's life (especially his second and third months) is critical in the formation of his song repertoire (10). Since we have never observed a male song sparrow to add of drop a song type between his first breeding season and subsequent years, we assume that a.young song sparrow's repertoire crystallizes sometime in his first year of life, possibly as early as his hatching summer. Putting these observations together, we hypothesized that during this floater period the young bird learns the song types of some or all of the territorial males in his floater range. To test this hypothesis, we attempted to trace the song tutors for a sample of young male sparrows from our study population.In this paper, we follow conventional usage and call the bird from whom the song was learned the tutor (the learner is the student). We do not mean to imply by these terms that the older bird actively teaches the younger bird (although he may) or that the younger bird is a passive learner (indeed our evidence suggests quite otherwise Wash-...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Correlation of song learning and territoryestablishment strategies in the song sparrow.

Beecher

Campbell

Stoddard

1994

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

143

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“…As such, Stoddard et al (1992) concluded that the earlier studies did not demonstrate neighbor/stranger discrimination because both stimuli were perceived as relatively equal threats anywhere inside a male's territory. Red-eyed Vireos do not show the same degree of territory instability as that seen in Song Sparrows (Rice 1978a, b, pers.…”

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confidence: 86%

“…In Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) discrimination between neighbors and strangers songs was not demonstrated when songs were broadcast just inside subjects' territorial boundaries (Kroodsma 1976, Searcy et al 1981, but was demonstrated when songs were broadcast from the neighbors' territories (Stoddard et al 1992). Song sparrows have a significant amount of boundary instability in their territories (Stoddard et al 1992) and, during a year of high density, one-half of the territory take-overs were shown to be carried out by neighbors (Arcese 1989). …”

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confidence: 99%

Red-Eyed Vireos Have Difficulty Recognizing Individual Neighbors' Songs

1993

The Auk

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“…This could be interpreted as rural birds perceiving the playback as a greater social challenge than did urban birds. This hypothesis could be tested by presenting birds from different habitats with social challenges of varying intensity such as familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics (Stoddard et al, 1990).…”

Section: Habitat Differences In Neural Response To Conspecific Songmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two Neural Measures Differ between Urban and Rural Song Sparrows after Conspecific Song Playback

Sewall

Davies

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Urbanization is a critical form of environmental change that can affect the physiology and behavior of wild animals and, notably, birds. One behavioral difference between birds living in urban and rural habitats is that urban males show elevated boldness or territorial aggression in response to simulated social challenge. This pattern has been described in several populations of song sparrow, Melospiza melodia. Such behavioral differences must be underpinned by differences in the brain, yet little work has explored how urbanization and neural function may be interrelated. We explored the relationship between urbanization and neural activation within a network of brain regions, collectively called the social behavior network, which contributes to the regulation of territorial aggression. Specifically, we captured free-living, territorial male song sparrows by playing them conspecific songs for 6-11 min, and then collected their brains. We estimated recent neural activation, as indicated by the immediate early gene FOS, and measured levels of a neuropeptide, arginine vasotocin (AVT), which is involved in the regulation of social behavior. Based on previous studies we expected urban males, which are generally more territorially aggressive, to have lower FOS expression in a node of the social behavior network implicated in regulating territoriality, the lateral septum (LS). Additionally, we expected urban males to have lower AVT expression in a brain region involved in the regulation of sociality, the medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTm). We found that, compared to rural males, urban male song sparrows did have lower FOS expression in the LS. This pattern suggests that lower neural activation in the LS could contribute to behavioral adjustments to urbanization in male song sparrows. Additionally, counter to our predictions, urban male song sparrows had higher AVT-like immunoreactivity in the BSTm. Future work building upon these findings is needed to determine the causal role of such neural differences across rural and urban habitats. Understanding the mechanisms impacted by urbanization will inform our understanding of the reversibility and consequences of this form of habitat change.

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Strong Neighbor-Stranger Discrimination in Song Sparrows

Cited by 88 publications

References 17 publications

Correlation of song learning and territoryestablishment strategies in the song sparrow.

Correlation of song learning and territoryestablishment strategies in the song sparrow.

Red-Eyed Vireos Have Difficulty Recognizing Individual Neighbors' Songs

Two Neural Measures Differ between Urban and Rural Song Sparrows after Conspecific Song Playback

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