Females alter their song when challenged in a sex-role reversed bird species.

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Nicole GeberzahnCarel Ten Cate

Abstract

Birdsong serves to attract mates and to deter territorial rivals. Even though song is not restricted to males, this dual function has almost exclusively been demonstrated for male song. To test the generality of hypotheses on birdsong, we investigated female song in the sex-role reversed, classically polyandrous African black coucal (Centropus grillii) in the context of female-female competition. We compared spontaneously vocalizing females with females vocally responding to a playback simulating a conspecific intruder. Females changed vocal parameters in response to playbacks: They lowered the pitch of their vocalizations and enhanced the duration of song elements when being challenged. Also, the composition of the vocalizations was altered. There was no significant correlation between pitch and body size parameters in spontaneous song, but there was for response songs, with larger females having a lower pitch. These changes in vocal properties suggest that the vocalizations are important for mutual assessment of competitive abilities in females. Our findings confirm the general role of intrasexual competition in vocal communication of birds. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s0...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 18, 2014·Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology·Nicole Geberzahn, Thierry Aubin
Aug 29, 2012·PloS One·Erwin NemethHenrik Brumm
Feb 26, 2013·PloS One·Michelle L HallAnne Peters
May 6, 2014·Behavioural Processes·Hiroko KagawaKazuo Okanoya
Jan 10, 2012·General and Comparative Endocrinology·Samuel P Caro
Aug 7, 2014·BMC Biology·Nicole Geberzahn, Thierry Aubin
Nov 18, 2016·Royal Society Open Science·Wolfgang GoymannIngrid Schwabl
Jul 15, 2018·BMC Evolutionary Biology·Ignas Safari, Wolfgang Goymann
Jun 14, 2013·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Sat GavassaPhilip K Stoddard

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