@article {57971, title = {Vocal Response of Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) to Urban Environmental Factors in Peninsular Malaysia}, year = {2019}, abstract = {

Anthropogenic noise and changes in environmental gradients resulted from urbanisation have been shown to alter vocalisation of urban birds in previous studies. This study examined the vocalisation of the Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis; locally known as Murai Kampung) in relation to anthropogenic noise and environmental factors in the urban, suburban and rural areas in Peninsular Malaysia. We measured four ambient factors (i.e. ambient noise, temperature, relative humidity and light intensity) and two landscape factors (i.e. distance to building and distance to major roads) between January and June 2017 from six locations. A total of 147 recordings comprising territorial songs of the bird were obtained and transcribed into spectrograms. Six parameters, namely low frequency, high frequency, frequency ranges, length of strophe, number of elements per strophe, and time interval between strophes were derived from spectrograms for each recording. In urban areas, low frequency of the songs was found to have increased significantly as compared to those recorded in suburban and rural areas. The difference in noise, temperature and relative humidity in urban and suburban environment had led to both single and interaction effects towards the Oriental Magpie Robin\’s song parameters, i.e. low frequency, length of strophe, time interval between strophes and number of elements per strophe. The results evidenced the ability of the Oriental Magpie Robin in regulating and altering their song structure according to its surrounding environment. This implies its vocal plasticity which is important in ensuring the efficiency in transmission of songs and is likely to explain why the bird is less susceptible to urbanisation.

}, keywords = {Ambient and landscape factors, bird species, frequency, urbanisation, vocalisation}, doi = {10.17576/jsm10.17576/jsm-2019-481010.17576/jsm-2019-4810-01}, url = {http://www.ukm.my/jsm/}, author = {Hanafi, Shafinaz and Chong, Leong Puan and Maruthaveeran, Sreetheran and Yeong, Kok Loong} } @article {57965, title = {Singing behind the stage: thrush nightingales produce more variable songs on their wintering grounds}, year = {2019}, abstract = {

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.

}, keywords = {Element variability, Non-breeding singing, Song consistency, Song function, Song plasticity, Thrush nightingale}, doi = {10.1007/s00265-019-2765-x}, url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00265-019-2765-x}, author = {Souriau, Abel and Geberzahn, Nicole and Ivanitskii, Vladimir V. and Marova, Irina M. and Vokurkov{\'a}, Jana and Reifov{\'a}, Radka and Reif, Ji{\v r}i and Petruskov{\'a}, Tereza} } @article {57565, title = {Eavesdropping on a heterospecific alarm call in the giant root-rat (Tachyorytes macrocephalus), an important prey of the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis)}, year = {2019}, abstract = {

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.

}, keywords = {Afroalpine, Alarm, Anti-predator, eavesdropping, Mutualism, Wing whistle}, doi = {10.1007/s10164-019-00618-1}, url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10164-019-00618-1}, author = {Hrouzkov{\'a}, Ema and Bernasov{\'a}, Eli{\v s}ka and {\v S}kl{\'\i}ba, Jan} } @article {47572, title = {Reproductive character displacement of female, but not male song discrimination in an avian hybrid zone}, journal = {Evolution}, year = {2017}, month = {Nov-05-2017}, abstract = {

Divergence of male sexual signals and female preferences for those signals often maintains reproductive boundaries between closely related, co-occurring species. However, contrasting sources of selection, such as interspecific competition, can lead to weak divergence or even convergence of sexual signals in sympatry. When signals converge, assortative mating can be maintained if the mating preferences of females diverge in sympatry (reproductive character displacement; RCD), but there are few explicit examples. Pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) are sympatric with collared flycatchers (F. albicollis) on the Baltic island of \Öland, where males from both species compete over nestboxes, their songs converge, and the two species occasionally hybridize. We compare song discrimination of male and female pied flycatchers on \Öland and in an allopatric population on the Swedish mainland. Using field choice trials, we show that male pied flycatchers respond similarly to the songs of both species in sympatry and in allopatry, while female pied flycatchers express stronger discrimination against heterospecific songs in sympatry than in allopatry. These results are consistent with RCD of song discrimination of female pied flycatchers where they co-occur with collared flycatchers, which should maintain species assortative mating despite convergence of male sexual signals.

}, doi = {10.1111/evo.13267}, url = {http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/evo.13267}, author = {Wheatcroft, David and Qvarnstr{\"o}m, Anna} }