Zebra finch song is a very short-range signal in the wild: evidence from an integrated approach

Abstract

Birdsong is typically seen as a long-range signal functioning in mate attraction and territory defense. Among birds, the zebra finch is the prime model organism in bioacoustics, yet almost exclusively studied in the lab. In the wild, however, zebra finch song differs strikingly from songbirds commonly studied in the wild as zebra finch males sing most after mating and in the absence of territoriality. Using data from the wild, we here provide an ecological context for a wealth of laboratory studies. By integrating calibrated sound recordings, sound transmission experiments and social ecology of zebra finches in the wild with insights from hearing physiology we show that wild zebra finch song is a very short-range signal with an audible range of about nine meters and that even the louder distance calls do not carry much farther (up to about fourteen meters). These integrated findings provide an ecological context for the interpretation of laboratory studies of this species and indicate that the vocal communication distance of the main laboratory species for avian acoustics contrasts strikingly with songbirds that use their song as a long-range advertisement signal.

An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches

“…Similarly, interrupted communication between parents and offspring as has been observed in tree swallows ( Leonard et al, 2015 ) and blue tits ( Lucass et al, 2016 ) may also occur in zebra finches and could have increased nest attendance time. Although zebra finch vocalizations are relatively soft compared to other songbirds ( Loning et al, 2021 ), they should still be at least partly audible in the close proximity conditions in the small-cage environment of our laboratory experiment making masking of parental vocal communication perhaps a less likely explanation for the current observations. However, parents also react to the vocal signals of their chicks and the amount, timing and audibility of these signals might have been affected by the noise treatment in ways that made parents change their nest attendance behaviour.…”

“…Seasonal breeders, for example, rely on other environmental and intrapair cues than lifelong opportunistic breeders. However, other aspects of zebra finch biology point to potential vulnerability to noise: synchronisation of breeding activity ( Waas et al, 2005 ; Brandl et al, 2019 ) and parental communication ( Villain et al, 2016 ) are all mediated by vocal communication (calls and singing), while zebra finch vocalisations carry only short distance compared to many other songbirds ( Loning et al, 2021 ).…”

RoboFinch: A versatile audio‐visual synchronised robotic bird model for laboratory and field research on songbirds

“…First, multimodal signals often generate more attention than unimodal signals, suggesting that increased stimulus salience alone might improve learning (Hebets & Papaj, 2005). Second, because sound sources are often difficult to localise, receivers may benefit from multimodal displays by integrating audio‐visual information on sender identity and location (Halfwerk et al, 2019) and this might be especially true for species like the zebra finch where song serves mainly as a close‐range communication signal (Loning et al, 2022). Juveniles may therefore need to stay close to their song tutors to be able to process the fine acoustic structures present in this species' song.…”

Hanging out in the outback: the use of social hotspots by wild zebra finches

“…Zebra finches live in multi-level societies (McCowan et al 2015) and are non-territorial songbirds that have only shortrange vocalisations (Loning et al 2022). Zebra finches are distributed throughout most of Australia, but are mostly found in arid habitats (Zann 1996).…”