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Vocal performance influences female response to male bird song: An experimental test

Publication ,  Journal Article
Ballentine, B; Hyman, J; Nowicki, S
Published in: Behavioral Ecology
January 1, 2004

Female songbirds are thought to assess males based on aspects of song, such as repertoire size or amount of singing, that could potentially provide information about male quality. A relatively unexplored aspect of song that also might serve as an assessment signal is a male's ability to perform physically challenging songs. Trilled songs, such as those produced by swamp sparrows (Melospiza georgiana), present males with a performance challenge because trills require rapid and precise coordination of vocal tract movements, resulting in a trade-off between trill rate and frequency bandwidth. This trade-off defines a constraint on song production observed as a triangular distribution in acoustic space of trill rate by frequency bandwidth, with an upper boundary that represents a performance limit. Given this background on song production constraints, we are able to identify a priori which songs are performed with a higher degree of proficiency and, thus, which songs should be more attractive to females. We determined the performance limit for a population of swamp sparrows and measured how well individual males performed songs relative to this limit ("vocal performance"). We then compared female solicitation responses to high-performance versus low-performance versions of the same song type produced by different males. Females displayed significantly more to high-performance songs than to low-performance songs, supporting the hypothesis that females use vocal performance to assess males.

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Published In

Behavioral Ecology

DOI

ISSN

1045-2249

Publication Date

January 1, 2004

Volume

15

Issue

1

Start / End Page

163 / 168

Related Subject Headings

  • Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology
  • 3109 Zoology
  • 3104 Evolutionary biology
  • 3103 Ecology
  • 0608 Zoology
  • 0603 Evolutionary Biology
  • 0602 Ecology
 

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Ballentine, B., Hyman, J., & Nowicki, S. (2004). Vocal performance influences female response to male bird song: An experimental test. Behavioral Ecology, 15(1), 163–168. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arg090
Ballentine, B., J. Hyman, and S. Nowicki. “Vocal performance influences female response to male bird song: An experimental test.” Behavioral Ecology 15, no. 1 (January 1, 2004): 163–68. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arg090.
Ballentine B, Hyman J, Nowicki S. Vocal performance influences female response to male bird song: An experimental test. Behavioral Ecology. 2004 Jan 1;15(1):163–8.
Ballentine, B., et al. “Vocal performance influences female response to male bird song: An experimental test.” Behavioral Ecology, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2004, pp. 163–68. Scopus, doi:10.1093/beheco/arg090.
Ballentine B, Hyman J, Nowicki S. Vocal performance influences female response to male bird song: An experimental test. Behavioral Ecology. 2004 Jan 1;15(1):163–168.
Journal cover image

Published In

Behavioral Ecology

DOI

ISSN

1045-2249

Publication Date

January 1, 2004

Volume

15

Issue

1

Start / End Page

163 / 168

Related Subject Headings

  • Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology
  • 3109 Zoology
  • 3104 Evolutionary biology
  • 3103 Ecology
  • 0608 Zoology
  • 0603 Evolutionary Biology
  • 0602 Ecology