Neighbour-stranger song discrimination in territorial ortolan bunting Emberiza hortulana males
Neighbour‐stranger discrimination has been demonstrated in many species, but the mechanisms employed in discrimination vary. We tested whether an oscine bird with small repertoire size, the ortolan bunting Emberiza hortulana, discriminated between songs of neighbours and strangers. We performed play...
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Published in | Journal of avian biology Vol. 38; no. 4; pp. 415 - 420 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Copenhagen
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.07.2007
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Neighbour‐stranger discrimination has been demonstrated in many species, but the mechanisms employed in discrimination vary. We tested whether an oscine bird with small repertoire size, the ortolan bunting Emberiza hortulana, discriminated between songs of neighbours and strangers. We performed playback experiments to measure response of males to a repeated single example of a single song type derived from a repertoire of a neighbour or stranger. Thirteen males were tested twice each, and in both cases songs were broadcast from the territory boundary shared by the subject male and the neighbour. Subjects responded more aggressively to songs of strangers than neighbours, i.e. they approached the loudspeaker faster and came closer and did more flights during the playback of stranger song. We found no significant differences in vocal response between treatments. We conclude that ortolan bunting can discriminate between songs of neighbours and strangers. This study provides experimental evidence for ortolan buntings in neighbour‐stranger discrimination. It also demonstrates that a single example of song is enough to discriminate between neighbours and strangers. We discuss which song characteristics are the possible acoustic basis for discrimination in the studied species. |
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Bibliography: | istex:F33974C76F99238556E12A1D83C2A1C0EB14B0F8 ArticleID:JAV4123 ark:/67375/WNG-HKL33LVZ-N |
ISSN: | 0908-8857 1600-048X |
DOI: | 10.1111/j.0908-8857.2007.04123.x |