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Singing of Claudia’s Leaf-warbler (Phylloscopus claudiae) in aggressive contexts: role of song rate, song type diversity and song type transitional pattern

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Abstract

In many songbirds, males vary certain aspects of their singing behavior when engaged in territorial interactions. Song rate, song type switching rate, song matching, song overlapping, and the usage of specific song types were proposed to be aggressive signals. It is well known that transitions between different song types in a song sequence are non-random in many species, but the signaling significance of non-random vocal streams is poorly understood. We asked whether singing plays a role in male–male interactions in Claudia’s Leaf-warbler. Along with more traditional metrics (i.e., song length, song rate, song type switching rate and song type diversity), we used (1) song sequence linearity (SLIN) and consistency (SCONS) indexes, and (2) applied an information theory approach by means of a first-order relative entropy (RE1) calculation to analyze the role of song type transitional patterns in male–male interactions. The study was conducted in April–June 2016 in Hupingshan National Nature Reserve, Hunan province, China. We simulated territorial intrusion by broadcasting Claudia’s Leaf-warbler songs in territories. Experiments involved 14 different males. A comparison of spontaneous singing with that elicited by playback showed that song rate and song type diversity increased, and that entropy decreased. By contrast, SLIN and SCONS, though significantly correlated with RE1, did not differ between spontaneous singing and singing in response to playback. The decrease of entropy means that the transitions between different song types in a song sequence were determined more by specific factors and predictable and thus more non-random. However, these results were weak, as the decrease of RE1 did not coincide with the expected increase of SLIN, SCONS and S. Our results are thus partly consistent with the idea that non-random vocal structures, along with other song parameters, could play a role in male–male competition.

Zusammenfassung

Die Rolle von Wiederholungshäufigkeit, Gesangsvielfalt und spezifischer Übergangsmuster im Gesang von Claudias Laubsängern ( Phylloscopus claudiae ) bei Revierkämpfen

Bei vielen Vogelarten ändern die Männchen bei Revierkämpfen bestimmte Eigenheiten ihres Sing-Verhaltens. Die Wiederholungsrate des Gesangs, das Wechseln zwischen unterschiedlichen Gesangselementen, das Zurücksingen an einen Artgenossen, das Überlappen von Gesängen und der Einsatz ganz spezifischer Gesangselemente wurden schon als Zeichen für Agressivität gewertet. Für viele Vogelarten weiß man, dass die Übergänge zwischen unterschiedlichen Gesangselementen innerhalb einer längeren Folge nicht zufällig gewählt sind, aber die Signalbedeutung solcher nicht-zufälliger Tonfolgen ist noch kaum bekannt. Unsere Fragestellung war, ob bei Claudias Laubsängern der Gesang bei den Interaktionen zwischen Männchen eine Rolle spielt. Zusätzlich zu den üblichen Parametern wie Gesangsdauer, Wiederholungshäufigkeit, Umschalten zwischen einzelnen Gesangselementen und Vielfalt der eingesetzten Gesänge, nutzten wir auch Berechnungen des mittleren Informationsgehalts als informationstheoretischen Ansatz für die Analyse der Rolle, die diese Übergangsmuster innerhalb der Gesänge bei den Auseinandersetzungen zwischen den Männchen spielte. Die Studie wurde von April bis Juni 2016 im Hupingshan Naturschutzgebiet in der Provinz Hunan, China, durchgeführt. Wir simulierten ein Eindringen in die Reviere durch das Abspielen von Gesängen dieser Laubsänger dort, und 14 unterschiedliche Männchen wurden in die Untersuchungen einbezogen. Ein Vergleich von spontanen Gesängen mit solchen, die durch das Playback-Verfahren ausgelöst wurden, zeigte, dass die Wiederholungsrate der Gesänge sowie die Vielfalt der einzelnen unterschiedlichen Gesangselemente anstieg und der Informationsgehalt abnahm. Diese Verringerung des Informationsgehalts heißt, dass sich die Übergänge zwischen unterschiedlichen Gesangselementen innerhalb eines Lieds als stärker festgelegt und damit eher vorhersagbar und weniger zufällig erwiesen. Diese Untersuchung bietet somit einen empirischen Beweis dafür an, dass im Konkurrenzkampf zwischen den Männchen nicht-zufällige Gesangsstrukturen zusammen mit anderen Gesangs-Parametern eine Rolle spielen könnten.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Shurong Tian for his support during the field study. A. O. and Y. K. were supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 17-04-00903-a).

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Correspondence to Alexey Opaev.

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Communicated by S. Kipper.

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10336_2018_1614_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Fig. 1S Examples of songs of male 12 Phylloscopus claudiae belonging to song type no. 1 (1a1d) and song type no. 2 (2a2d) (TIFF 3330 kb)

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Opaev, A., Kolesnikova, Y., Liu, M. et al. Singing of Claudia’s Leaf-warbler (Phylloscopus claudiae) in aggressive contexts: role of song rate, song type diversity and song type transitional pattern. J Ornithol 160, 297–304 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-018-1614-4

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