Vocal Performance in Songbirds: From Mechanisms to Evolution

Podos, Jeffrey; Sung, Ha‐Cheol

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-34683-6_9

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 110 publications

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“…In passerine vocal learners, the ability to strongly modulate the sound source for generating an increased fundamental frequency range is paired with the ability to strongly modulate the vocal tract filter. These data are, to our knowledge, the first confirmation that tonality is achieved over a broad frequency range, although the ability to maintain tonality has been assumed in the song performance literature [29,31,54]. If tonality is an important indicator of the singing bird's quality, as suggested by limited playback experiments (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Tonality over a broad frequency range is linked to vocal learning in birds

2022

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Many birds emit tonal song syllables even though the sound sources generate sound with rich upper harmonic energy content. This tonality is thought to arise in part from dynamically adjusted filtering of harmonic content. Here, we compare tonality of song syllables between vocal learners and non-learners to assess whether this characteristic is linked to the increased neural substrate that evolved with vocal learning. We hypothesize that vocal learning ability is correlated with enhanced ability for generating tonal sounds, because vocal production learners might also have an enhanced ability to articulate their vocal tracts and sound source for producing tonality. To test this hypothesis, we compared vocal learners and non-learners from two groups (186 passerines and 42 hummingbirds) by assessing tonality of song syllables. The data suggest that vocal learners in both clades have evolved to sing songs with higher tonality than the related, non-vocal learning clades, which is consistent with stronger roles for broadband dynamic filtering and adjustments to the sound source. In addition, oscine songs display higher tonality than those of hummingbirds. A complex interplay of vocal tract biomechanics, anatomical differences of the sound source as well as increased motor control through vocal learning facilitates generation of broad tonality.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Tonality over a broad frequency range is linked to vocal learning in birds

2022

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“…Three anecdotal observations provide further support that singing from elevated perches is a mechanism for attracting prospective females: (1) breeding pairs travelled primarily in the understory, (2) nests were never built in the canopy, but, rather, from forked branches, usually 2-3 meters above the ground, and (3) males often returned to canopy perches after their mate disappeared, typically following nest failure. The tendency of males to select higher perches when singing discrete song versus rambling song might be because discrete song is louder than rambling song (Bradley 1980); the combination of being louder and being sung from higher perches may reflect a history of selection for maximizing signal transmission distance (Sprau et al 2012, Podos andSung 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationships of breeding stage to daytime singing behaviour and song perch height in Bermuda White-eyed Vireos (Vireo griseus bermudianus)

Mejías

Wilson

2022

Preprint

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Bird song is crucial for attracting mates and defending territories, but different types of song or different singing behaviours may be involved in acquiring or maintaining each resource. Furthermore, male songbirds may adjust when and where they sing throughout the breeding season, depending on their breeding stage. However, such relationships remain untested in several avian taxa. Here, we studied male Bermuda White-eyed Vireos (Vireo griseus bermudianus), a passerine with two distinct song types (discrete and rambling), to test the mate attraction, territory defence, and nesting stage hypotheses. We compare song rate and song perch height among different stages of the breeding season and during the non-breeding season. We show that male vireos produce both song types during the breeding and non-breeding seasons, suggesting dual roles in mate choice and territorial defence. Singing rate did not differ between the two seasons, but, within the breeding season, males without nesting duties had significantly higher song rates than males with nesting duties. Song rate was lowest during the nestling stage, which coincided with the highest rate of nest predation. Song perch height was higher during the breeding season versus non-breeding season, among males without nesting duties compared to males with nesting duties, and when males produced discrete versus rambling songs. Our findings suggest that male vireos increase their conspicuousness to prospecting females by increasing singing rate and song perch height, and that they sing during the breeding and non-breeding seasons to defend year-round territories. Collectively, our study supports the mate attraction and territory defence hypotheses of bird song and suggests that Bermuda White-eyed Vireos adjust their singing rate in response to nest predation risk.

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“…The most consistent result across latitudes was the lower syllable rates shown by insular species in comparison to their mainland counterparts. As mentioned in the introduction, the syllable rate is probably the song feature for which sexual selection towards exaggeration has been better established (Drǎgǎnoiu et al 2002, Catchpole and Slater 2008, Byers et al 2015, Podos and Sung 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of vocal performance and song complexity in island birds

Robert

Lengagne

Melo³

et al. 2021

Journal of Avian Biology

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Oceanic islands share distinctive characteristics thought to underlie a set of parallel evolutionary trends across islands and taxonomic groups – including life‐history traits, morphology and visual signals. To which extent acoustic signals also change in parallel on islands is less clear. Some important processes associated with insularity, such as founder effects and reduced sexual selection, could lead to a decrease in vocal performance and song complexity on islands. In a field‐based study, we recorded 11 insular species and their closest mainland relatives. Out of the 11 species pairs, 6 live in the tropics (São Tomé/Mount Cameroon) and 5 in the temperate region (Madeira/southern France). For each species, we measured two proxies of vocal performance (song duration and syllable rate) and one proxy of song complexity (syllable diversity). This study did not recover a clear relationship between the island environment and song traits. If as expected, syllable rate was lower in island species than in their mainland counterparts, the two other proxies showed no clear island–mainland pattern of divergence. Several factors may explain the absence of reduction for song duration and syllable diversity. Among those, relaxation of interspecific competition on islands may have led to an increase in syllable diversity, or correlations between song variables may have constrained song evolution. More studies on island species are needed to draw a better picture of divergence patterns and go beyond the confounding ecological factors that could explain peculiar song characteristics in islands.

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Vocal Performance in Songbirds: From Mechanisms to Evolution

Cited by 17 publications

References 110 publications

Tonality over a broad frequency range is linked to vocal learning in birds

Tonality over a broad frequency range is linked to vocal learning in birds

The relationships of breeding stage to daytime singing behaviour and song perch height in Bermuda White-eyed Vireos (Vireo griseus bermudianus)

Evolution of vocal performance and song complexity in island birds

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