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Vibrational Signals in Multimodal Courtship Displays of Birds

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Biotremology: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution

Part of the book series: Animal Signals and Communication ((ANISIGCOM,volume 8))

Abstract

Birds often combine vocalization and body movements for communication with other individuals, but our knowledge of this multimodal communication is primarily limited to the vocal and visual signals. Since birds often stay and communicate upon a substrate that seems to be efficient in the transmission of substrate-borne vibrations (e.g., courtship bobbing on a branch), it is rather surprising that vibrational signals have been almost completely overlooked in past studies of their communication. In the blue-capped cordon-bleu (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus), a socially monogamous songbird, both sexes perform courtship displays that are characterized by singing and simultaneous visual displays. We previously found that their courtship bobbing includes rapid tap dance-like behavior, which is assumed to produce vibrations that propagate through the perch and non-vocal sounds in addition to visual signals. In this chapter, we introduce our previous findings of this multimodal courtship display as well as quantitative analyses of substrate-borne vibrations produced by cordon-bleus. We will also discuss the potential of vibrational signals for bird communication by describing their possible functions and evolutionary scenarios. We believe that investigating vibrational communication in birds can provide fruitful insights into the role of vibrations in the evolution of complex communication systems.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Mr. Markus Abels and Mr. Reinhard Biller for help with the development of equipment. We thank Dr. Manfred Gahr for providing the experimental equipment and birds and for constructive comments. We also thank Ms. Ayumi Mizuno for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work is supported by JSPS Overseas Research Fellowships and Kawai Foundation for Sound Technology & Music.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioural Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany

    Nao Ota

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

    Masayo Soma

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  1. Nao Ota
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  2. Masayo Soma
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Correspondence to Nao Ota .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Science, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA

    Peggy S. M. Hill

  2. Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all’Adige, Trento, Italy

    Valerio Mazzoni

  3. Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research, National Institute of Biology (NIB), Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Nataša Stritih-Peljhan

  4. Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research, National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Meta Virant-Doberlet

  5. Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery, Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, Berlin, Germany

    Andreas Wessel

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Ota, N., Soma, M. (2022). Vibrational Signals in Multimodal Courtship Displays of Birds. In: Hill, P.S.M., Mazzoni, V., Stritih-Peljhan, N., Virant-Doberlet, M., Wessel, A. (eds) Biotremology: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution. Animal Signals and Communication, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97419-0_10

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