Strangers like me: birds respond equally to a familiar and an unfamiliar sentinel species' alarm calls, but respond less to non‐core and non‐sentinel's alarm calls

• Published in: Journal of avian biology Vol. 2024; no. 9-10
• Main Authors: Dominguez, Jonah S., Bolger, Morgan, Bush, Autumn, Hauber, Mark E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2024; John Wiley & Sons, Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Alarm behavior; alarm calls; Allopatry; antipredatory behavior; Biogeography; Birds; communication; Conspecifics; geographical distribution; heterospecific eavesdropping; indicator species; Interspecific relationships; mixed-species flocks; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Predation; risk; sentinel species; Species; Sympatric populations; sympatry

Alarm signals have evolved to communicate imminent threats to conspecifics but animals may also perceive other species' alarm displays to obtain adaptive information. In birds, mixed‐species foraging flocks are often structured around a focal sentinel species, which produces reliable alarm call...