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A proxy of social mate choice in prairie warblers is correlated with consistent, rapid, low-pitched singing

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Abstract

In songbirds, female mate choice may be influenced by how well a male performs his songs. Performing songs well may be especially difficult if it requires maximizing multiple aspects of performance simultaneously. We therefore hypothesized that, in a population of prairie warblers, the males most attractive to females would be those with superior performance in more than one facet of singing. We tested this prediction by comparing different aspects of song performance, as well as different combinations of these aspects, to determine which were the best predictors of first-egg date, which we took to be a proxy for social mate choice. We found that first-egg date was best predicted by a combination of song performance traits that included consistent performance, rapid rate, and low pitch. Female preference for males capable of physically challenging song performance may have contributed to the evolution of acoustically complex vocalizations in oscine songbirds, because if complex sounds are more difficult to perform, they may be favored by selection for signal reliability.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Victoria Phu, Rachel Xue, Ben Lagasse, and Charles Ylijoki for the assistance with song analysis and Carly Chandler, Jen Glagowski, Brodie Kramer, Tyler Maikath, Sam Roberts, Matt Smith, Greta Turschak, and Mattie VandenBoom for their excellent work in the field. This work was supported by the Nuttall Ornithological Club Blake-Nuttall Fund and the US Forest Service, Northern Research Station.

Ethical standards

The research described here complied with the current laws of the USA and was approved by the University of Massachusetts Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (protocol # 2011-0024).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 221 Morrill Science Center, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Bruce E. Byers

  2. Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 204 Holdsworth Hall, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Michael E. Akresh

  3. U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 201 Holdsworth Hall, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    David I. King

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  1. Bruce E. Byers
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  2. Michael E. Akresh
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Correspondence to Bruce E. Byers.

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Communicated by M. Leonard

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Byers, B.E., Akresh, M.E. & King, D.I. A proxy of social mate choice in prairie warblers is correlated with consistent, rapid, low-pitched singing. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 69, 1275–1286 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1940-y

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