Singing behind the stage: thrush nightingales produce more variable songs on their wintering grounds

Kód výsledku v 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>

Výsledek na webu

<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>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Singing behind the stage: thrush nightingales produce more variable songs on their wintering grounds

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

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.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Singing behind the stage: thrush nightingales produce more variable songs on their wintering grounds

Popis výsledku anglicky

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.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

10618 - Ecology

Projekt

—

Návaznosti

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2019

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

ISSN

0340-5443

e-ISSN

—

Svazek periodika

73

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

11

Stát vydavatele periodika

DE - Spolková republika Německo

Počet stran výsledku

14

Strana od-do

UNSP150

Kód UT WoS článku

000499247700001

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85075204883