The form and function of duets and choruses in Red-backed Fairy-wrens

Dowling, Jenélle L.; Webster, Michael S.

doi:10.1071/mu12082

Cited by 26 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…In red-backed fairy-wrens, there is support for territory establishment and defence [21,22], but the results presented here suggest that strong duetting response is also associated with increased paternity assurance. This pattern has been inferred previously from behavioural evidence or life-history trends [27][28][29], but this study is, we believe, the first to demonstrate a clear link based on within-population variance in duetting and genetic paternity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

“…12: 20151025 duets that were joined by males, as would be predicted by this hypothesis. Nonetheless, previous work on another population of red-backed fairy-wrens failed to demonstrate acoustic mate guarding [21,22]. Another possibility is that duetting is a general 'keep out' signal produced by the pair to prevent usurpation of a partner or pair bond position [23].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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The couple that sings together stays together: duetting, aggression and extra-pair paternity in a promiscuous bird species

2016

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When individuals mate outside the pair bond, males should employ behaviours such as aggression or vocal displays (e.g. duetting) that help assure paternity of the offspring they care for. We tested whether male paternity was associated with aggression or duetting in the red-backed fairy-wren, a species exhibiting high rates of extra-pair paternity. During simulated territorial intrusions, aggression and duetting were variable among and repeatable within males, suggesting behavioural consistency of individuals. Males with quicker and stronger duet responses were cuckolded less often than males with slower and weaker responses. In contrast, physical aggression was not correlated with male paternity. These results suggest that either acoustic mate guarding or male-female vocal negotiations via duetting lead to increased paternity assurance, whereas physical aggression does not.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

The couple that sings together stays together: duetting, aggression and extra-pair paternity in a promiscuous bird species

2016

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“…More detailed work on other forest-dwelling Neotropical wrens using radiotracking (Logue, 2007a) and passive acoustic location of singing individuals (Mennill and Vehrencamp, 2008) has shown that duet responses are often given by individuals more than 10 m from their partner, with the initiator then moving closer to its partner, suggesting that duetting functions cooperatively in maintaining contact and pair cohesion. Banded wrens and other species that duet when partners are not perched next to one another thus contrast with duetting species that sing together while perched within a meter or two of one another (for examples, see Short and Horne, 1982;Hall and Magrath, 2000;Hall and Peters, 2008;Dowling and Webster, 2013).…”

Section: Coordination With Partnermentioning

confidence: 99%

Female song and vocal interactions with males in a neotropical wren

2015

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Bird song is thought to function primarily in same-sex competition, mate attraction, and reproductive stimulation of a partner. However, these conclusions are based largely on studies of the song of male birds in north-temperate species. We investigate female song in a Neotropical wren, Thryophilus pleurostictus, using observations and experiments to test the function of female song. Female banded wrens sang much less often than males, their songs were shorter, and their repertoire of song types was smaller. Females did not seem to sing for same-sex competition for resources or mates: female song rate did not increase in response to simulated intrusion, and females sang in response to less than one-third of playbacks simulating territorial intrusion by either unpaired or paired females. Territorial defense is important for both survival and reproduction in species that occupy all-purpose territories year-round, but female involvement in territorial defense was limited. Females were more likely to approach simulated intruders when their partner approached more closely, and were closer to their partner during playback simulating a pair of intruders, perhaps contributing to defense jointly with their partner. Females did not appear to use song to attract males for mating: only 25% of females sang in response to playback simulating an unpaired male during the nest-building period, and they were less likely to sing shortly before laying when they were more likely to be fertile. Female song in banded wrens seemed to be used primarily for communicating with their breeding partner: female songs overlapped or began within 1 s of a song by their partner more often than expected by chance, and male vocal behavior changed in response to song by their partner. However, the low rate of female song in banded wrens suggests this function does not select for song elaboration, consistent with the view that same-sex competition is the main driver of female song elaboration.

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“…Identifying the ecological and life-history correlates of female song requires detailed study of song, particularly in species that diverged closest to the ancestral node (Odom et al, 2014). At present, little is known about female song in other early diverging species, with the exception of the Maluridae (Cooney and Cockburn, 1995;Hall and Peters, 2008;ColombelliNégrel et al, 2010;Dowling and Webster, 2013;Cain et al, 2015). Therefore, it is not yet clear what aspects of song in lyrebirds have been retained since their ancestor diverged from the main branch of the oscines, and what features have since evolved.…”

Section: General Implications For Elaborate Vocalizations In Female Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Elaborate Mimetic Vocal Displays by Female Superb Lyrebirds

Dalziell

Welbergen

2016

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Some of the most striking vocalizations in birds are made by males that incorporate vocal mimicry in their sexual displays. Mimetic vocalization in females is largely undescribed, but it is unclear whether this is because of a lack of selection for vocal mimicry in females, or whether the phenomenon has simply been overlooked. These issues are thrown into sharp relief in the superb lyrebird, Menura novaehollandiae, a basal oscine passerine with a lek-like mating system and female uniparental care. The spectacular mimetic song display produced by courting male lyrebirds is a textbook example of a sexually selected trait, but the vocalizations of female lyrebirds are largely unknown. Here, we provide the first analysis of the structure and context of the vocalizations of female lyrebirds. Female lyrebirds were completely silent during courtship; however, females regularly produced sophisticated vocal displays incorporating both lyrebird-specific vocalizations and imitations of sounds within their environment. The structure of female vocalizations varied significantly with context. While foraging, females mostly produced a complex lyrebird-specific song, whereas they gave lyrebird-specific alarm calls most often during nest defense. Within their vocal displays females also included a variety of mimetic vocalizations, including imitations of the calls of dangerous predators, and of alarm calls and song of harmless heterospecifics. Females gave more mimetic vocalizations during nest defense than while foraging, and the types of sounds they imitated varied between these contexts, suggesting that mimetic vocalizations have more than one function. These results are inconsistent with previous portrayals of vocalizations by female lyrebirds as rare, functionless by-products of sexual selection on males. Instead, our results support the hypotheses that complex female vocalizations play a role in nest defense and mediate female-female competition for breeding territories. In sum, this study reveals elaborate female vocal displays in a species widely depicted as an example of sexual selection for male extravagance, and thus highlights the hidden complexity of female vocalizations.

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The form and function of duets and choruses in Red-backed Fairy-wrens

Cited by 26 publications

References 61 publications

The couple that sings together stays together: duetting, aggression and extra-pair paternity in a promiscuous bird species

The couple that sings together stays together: duetting, aggression and extra-pair paternity in a promiscuous bird species

Female song and vocal interactions with males in a neotropical wren

Elaborate Mimetic Vocal Displays by Female Superb Lyrebirds

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