Evidence of repertoire sharing and stability despite a high turnover rate in a duetting neotropical wren
Date
06/2020Author
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Abstract
In songbirds, the spatial pattern of song sharing among individuals is influenced by the song learning and dispersal strategies within each species. In birds where females and males sing and create joint acoustic displays (duets), the processes defining the patterns of song sharing become more complex as there might be different selection pressures shaping the behaviour of each sex. To provide further insight into the vocal development and the dispersal strategy of duetting tropical species, we investigated the patterns of individual and pair repertoire sharing, as well as the stability of these repertoires, in a colour‐marked population of riverside wrens, Cantorchilus semibadius, located in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Using data collected over a five‐year period, we found considerable variation in the sharing levels of phrase and duet type repertoires among neighbouring individuals coupled with a general decline of repertoire sharing as distance increased between birds’ territories. These results are consistent with a pattern predicted in age‐restricted learners that establish preferentially near their tutors. Furthermore, we found no evidence of individuals changing their phrase type repertoires over time, including after remating events. Duet type repertoires were also stable when pairs remained together. However, we observed a surprisingly high turnover rate. When individuals remated, even though the majority of the previous duet type repertoire remained, several new duet types were included. Taken together, our findings suggest that riverside wrens might create their individual repertoires by copying their same‐sex parent and neighbouring individuals before dispersal. Additionally, we speculate that even though birds were able to create new duet types after changing partners, a substantial portion of their duet type repertoire might also be copied from their parents and neighbouring pairs during the initial critical period of song learning.
Citation
Quiros Guerrero , E , Janeiro Silva , M J , Cresswell , W & Templeton , C N 2020 , ' Evidence of repertoire sharing and stability despite a high turnover rate in a duetting neotropical wren ' , Journal of Avian Biology , vol. 51 , no. 6 , e02382 . https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.02382
Publication
Journal of Avian Biology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0908-8857Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Avian Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
Funding: 1st author was supported by a PhD scholarship (381393/327118) funded by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT). 2nd author was supported by a PhD scholarship (SFRH/BD/96078/2013) funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT). This research was funded by grants and fellowships from NERC (NE/J018694/1), the Royal Society (RG2012R2), and MJ Murdock Charitable Trust (2014199).Collections
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