02273nas a2200205 4500008004100000245010700041210006900148520160100217653001601818653001801834653002001852653001401872653002901886653001601915653001701931653002901948100002301977700002302000856004402023 2020 eng d00aDoes the presence of an observer affect a bird's occurrence rate or singing rate during a point count?0 aDoes the presence of an observer affect a birds occurrence rate 3 a

The approach or presence of an observer may affect the behavior of nearby birds, rendering them either more or less detectable than when no observer is present due to a change in singing rates. To test whether there are systematic detection biases associated with the presence of an observer during point count bird surveys, we compared the occurrence and singing rates of birds during a 10‐min period immediately preceding the time when an observer arrived to conduct a count and during the formal count itself by extracting song information from autonomous sound recorders. We obtained recordings of 36 species of birds detected at ≥5 locations in one of three vegetation types, including burned conifer forest, green conifer/riparian streamside forest, and riparian bottomland/marshland. We found that species richness and both the probability of occurrence and singing rate for any of the species recorded were unaffected by the presence of an observer. In addition, the probability of occurrence did not differ significantly among four 2.5‐min recording sessions during 10‐min counts when an observer was present. Thus, the presence of an observer did not appear to introduce any detectable systematic bias that would make bird lists or unadjusted occurrence rates inaccurate on that basis alone. In addition, rates of bird occurrence across 2.5‐min temporal subsets of a 10‐min count did not vary in a systematic way that would violate the assumption of equal occupancy across adjacent time periods as sometimes used to build detection histories in occupancy modeling.

10abird survey10adetectability10aobserver effect10aoccupancy10apassive acousticsampling10apoint count10asinging rate10autonomous recording unit1 aHutto, Richard, L.1 aHutto, Russell, R. uhttp://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/jofo.1232902184nas a2200181 4500008004100000245009100041210006900132520157400201653002501775653002501800653001301825653002201838653001401860653002401874100002501898700002401923856005501947 2020 eng d00aSong-type switching rate in the chaffinch carries a message during simulated intrusion0 aSongtype switching rate in the chaffinch carries a message durin3 a

Birds communicate their motivation and willingness to escalate a territorial conflict with a variety of agonistic signals. One of these, song-type switching, has been suggested to be a conventional signal in male–male interactions. However, this behavior does not show a consistent pattern across species. In this study, we asked whether variation in song-switching rate carries a message for song receivers among territorial chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs. Chaffinch song is well described, but only a few studies have focused on the communicative function of song-type switching or bout duration. Using data from playback experiments, we show here that variation in song-type switching rate affects the response of chaffinches. In response to the low switching rate treatment, territorial males began to sing later, produced fewer songs and more rain calls, decreased flight intensity, and spent more time close to the speaker than during playback of songs with a high switching rate. Our results provide strong evidence that the song-type switching rate is an agonistic signal in the chaffinch and that territorial males exhibit a stronger response toward rivals that sing with a lower song-type switching rate. A secondary purpose of our study was to determine the receivers’ response with respect to their own song rate and song repertoire. We found that the reaction of tested males was correlated with their own spontaneous song rate. This implies that a male’s response to stimuli may be predicted on the basis of his own song output.

10aAggressive signaling10aanimal communication10abirdsong10aFringilla coelebs10asong rate10aSong-type switching1 aDeoniziak, Krzysztof1 aOsiejuk, Tomasz, S. uhttp://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00265-020-2825-201140nas a2200193 4500008004100000245007400041210006900115520049600184653002400680653002800704653001900732653001400751653001800765100002800783700002500811700002500836700001600861856006900877 2019 eng d00aSignificant Instances in Motor Gestures of Different Songbird Species0 aSignificant Instances in Motor Gestures of Different Songbird Sp3 a

The nervous system representation of a motor program is an open problem for most behaviors. In birdsong production, it has been proposed that some special temporal instances, linked to significant aspects of the motor gestures used to generate the song, are preferentially represented in the cortex. In this work, we compute these temporal instances for two species, and report which of them is better suited to test the proposed coding (as well as alternative models) against data.

10abirdsong production10acortical representation10amotor gestures10asongbirds10asparse coding1 aOrtiz, Javier, N. Lassa1 aHerbert, Cecilia, T.1 aMindlin, Gabriel, B.1 aAmador, Ana uhttps://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphy.2019.00142/full01329nas a2200193 4500008004100000245015700041210006900198520065800267653001500925653001000940653001800950653001800968653001400986653001701000100002001017700002401037700001801061856005601079 2019 eng d00aEavesdropping on a heterospecific alarm call in the giant root-rat (Tachyorytes macrocephalus), an important prey of the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis)0 aEavesdropping on a heterospecific alarm call in the giant rootra3 a

The giant root-rat of the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia has been reported to have a mutualistic relationship with a passerine, which involves eavesdropping on its alarm call. We tested this in a field playback experiment. Besides the alarm call, we included two sounds potentially acting as alarm cues and one as a control. Little reaction of root-rats was detected to the bird alarm call. However, intensive reaction was detected to an alarm call of the black-clawed brush-furred rat, a social rodent often occupying root-rats’ burrows. This result is understandable given the two rodents have the same principal predator, the Ethiopian wolf.

10aAfroalpine10aAlarm10aAnti-predator10aeavesdropping10aMutualism10aWing whistle1 aHrouzková, Ema1 aBernasová, Eliška1 aŠklíba, Jan uhttp://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10164-019-00618-102500nas a2200121 4500008004100000245010600041210006900147260003400216490008100250520198500331100002102316856004102337 2019 eng d00aVariability in the Repertoires and Singing Behavior of Male and Female ‘I‘iwi (Drepanis coccinea)0 aVariability in the Repertoires and Singing Behavior of Male and  aHilobUniversity of Hawai‘i0 vMaster of Science in Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science3 a

Oscine passerines (songbirds) are notable for their complex, learned songs and an immense variability of vocal characteristics across the clade. Studying oscine vocal behavior can teach us about the selection forces that drive songbird evolution, but more research is needed on many species, especially with regard to female singing in tropical, monomorphic species. In this study, I cataloged and described the vocalizations and vocal behaviors of ‘i‘iwi (Drepanis coccinea), a Hawaiian honeycreeper, and compared male and female repertoire size, repertoire content, and vocalization rate. I recorded the vocalizations and behavior of individual ‘i‘iwi at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, then examined spectrograms of ‘i‘iwi vocalizations, classified syllable types, and recorded quantitative measurements of time and frequency for each syllable. I selected seven male and six female ‘i‘iwi for statistical analysis. I observed whisper song, duetting, female solo singing, and females vocalizing from the nest among other behaviors, and was able to characterize a few common modes of ‘i‘iwi vocal behavior. I found no significant difference between male and female ‘i‘iwi in repertoire size, rate of vocalization, or proportion of shared syllables. A network analysis for modularity found that ‘i‘iwi repertoires are significantly modular, but modules mostly comprised single individuals rather than grouping ‘i‘iwi by sex. Additional measurements showed that ‘i‘iwi repertoires were highly individualistic. Overall, this study reveals previously unknown details about ‘i‘iwi vocal behavior and provides a baseline of knowledge that will contribute to ‘i‘iwi population monitoring tools and provide insight into the evolution of behavioral traits in ‘i‘iwi, among Hawaiian forest birds, and among songbirds worldwide.

1 aBeck, Angela, T. uhttps://bio.acousti.ca/da/node/5734102126nas a2200241 4500008004100000022001300041245005900054210005800113260001600171300001200187490000800199520128200207653001301489653001901502653001401521653002101535653002501556653001901581653001101600100001801611700002201629856023301651 2019 eng d a0003347200aContext-dependent variation of house finch song syntax0 aContextdependent variation of house finch song syntax cJan-01-2019 a33 - 420 v1473 a

We explored the role of social context in the syntactical variation of house finch, Haemorhous mexicanus, songs using both traditional song measures and network analysis. In comparison to solo bouts, the bouts of countersinging males had increased syntax diversity, with higher numbers of simple paths and transition types (but not syllable types) in comparison to solo song, which had high sequence consistency. Both the proportion of introductory syllables and the degree (number of transitions to and from those syllables) increased in countersinging bouts and were an important source of syntactic variability. In contrast, courtship bouts included longer songs and longer syllables than both solo and countersinging bouts, but were similar to solo songs in sequence consistency. The longest courtship songs often included concatenated sequences that formed ‘compound songs’, or repeating strings of main song syllables, which slightly increased the degree of those syllables. Our results suggest that interactions between males are associated with increased syntactic variability in song delivery while female choice favours signals that maintain species-typical syntax and demonstrate fitness in terms of a male's capacity to sing extended songs.

10abirdsong10acountersinging10acourtship10anetwork analysis10asequence consistency10asocial context10asyntax1 aCiaburri, Ivy1 aWilliams, Heather uhttps://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347218303373https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218303373?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218303373?httpAccept=text/plain02237nas a2200229 4500008004100000245010100041210006900142260001600211300001400227490000800241520150700249100003101756700001801787700002201805700002001827700001901847700002301866700002301889700002501912700001501937856005501952 2017 eng d00aNegative impact of urban noise on sexual receptivity and clutch size in female domestic canaries0 aNegative impact of urban noise on sexual receptivity and clutch  cJan-11-2017 a843 - 8530 v1233 a

In oscines, male song stimulates female reproduction and females are known to adjust both their sexual preferences and their maternal investment according to song quality. Female domestic canaries are especially responsive to wide frequency bandwidth (4 kHz) male songs emitted with a high-repetition syllable rate and low minimal frequencies (1 kHz). We previously showed that low-frequency urban noise decreases female sexual responsiveness for these low-frequency songs (1–5 kHz) through auditory masking. Based on the differential allocation hypothesis, we predicted that urban noise exposure will equally affect female maternal investment. Using a crossover design, we broadcast low-frequency songs to females either in an overlapping noise condition or in an alternating noise condition. Females decreased both their sexual responsiveness and their clutch size in the overlapping noise treatment relative to the alternative noise treatment. No differences were found concerning egg size or egg composition (yolk and albumen mass, testosterone concentration). Due to our experimental design, we can exclude a general impact of noisy conditions and thereby provide evidence for a detrimental effect through masking on avian courtship and reproductive output. These results suggest that noisy conditions may also affect avian communication in outdoor conditions, which may partly explain field reports on noise-dependent breeding success and reduced breeding densities at noisy sites.

1 aAunay, Guillaume, Huet des1 aGrenna, Marco1 aSlabbekoorn, Hans1 aNicolas, Pierre1 aNagle, Laurent1 aLeboucher, Gérard1 aMalacarne, Giorgio1 aDraganoiu, Tudor, I.1 aFusani, L. uhttp://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/eth.2017.123.issue-11