Singing behind the stage: thrush nightingales produce more variable songs on their wintering grounds
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11310%2F19%3A10401816" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11310/19:10401816 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=2elMhNmOBJ" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=2elMhNmOBJ</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-019-2765-x" target="_blank" >10.1007/s00265-019-2765-x</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Singing behind the stage: thrush nightingales produce more variable songs on their wintering grounds
Original language description
The songs of migratory passerine birds have a key role in mate attraction and territory defence during the breeding season. Many species also sing on their wintering grounds, but the function of this behaviour remains unclear. One possible explanation, proposed by the song improvement hypothesis, is that the birds take advantage of this period to develop their singing skills for the next breeding season. If so, non-breeding songs should reflect features of an early phase in song development, characterized by high vocal plasticity. In our study, we tested this prediction by comparing songs of thrush nightingales (Luscinia luscinia) recorded at two different breeding areas in Europe and one wintering area in Africa. While all songs from European localities had a typical structure characteristic of the study species, 89% of the songs recorded from Africa were highly variable, lacking such typical structure. We conducted further detailed analysis of breeding and winter songs that exhibited species-specific structure. First, we explored plasticity at the syllable level using a cross-correlation analysis, to obtain similarity scores as a measure of consistency. Second, we asked multiple human observers to quantify element variability. Our results showed significant differences in syllable consistency between breeding and wintering grounds, with more consistent delivery of syllables in the breeding areas. Likewise, element variability was substantially lower in the breeding populations. While both results fit the predictions of the song improvement hypothesis, more research is needed to elucidate the roles of singing on the wintering grounds.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10618 - Ecology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2019
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
ISSN
0340-5443
e-ISSN
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Volume of the periodical
73
Issue of the periodical within the volume
11
Country of publishing house
DE - GERMANY
Number of pages
14
Pages from-to
UNSP150
UT code for WoS article
000499247700001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85075204883