Skip to main content
Log in

Effect of conspecific alarm calls in the parental behaviour of nesting southern house wrens

  • Short Communication
  • Published:
acta ethologica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Alarm calls are usually used to signal the presence of a threat to members of the same species and have been studied broadly in social foraging species. We analysed the effects of conspecific alarm calls on the parental behaviour of a territorial species, the southern house wrens (Troglodytes aedon musculus), during nestling stage. We compared the parental response of adults feeding 9–11-day-old nestlings when faced with conspecific alarm calls and with a control non-sympatric species’ song broadcast from a neighbouring territory. We measured the time required by parents to return to the nest (latency) when exposed to the stimuli and estimated parent’s nest visitation rate and mean visit duration. Parents took longer to resume parental activities when we broadcast a conspecific alarm call, but they did not modify their nest visitation rate or the mean visit duration. Heterospecific songs did not seem to affect parental behaviour. Our results suggest that nesting southern house wrens can use alarm calls uttered from neighbouring territories to assess the presence of a threat and adjust their parental behaviour accordingly.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

References

  • Amo L, Galvan I, Tomas G, Sanz JJ (2008) Predator odour recognition and avoidance in a songbird. Funct Ecol 22:289–293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barrera JP, Chong L, Judy KN, Blumstein DT (2011) Reliability of public information: predators provide more information about risk than conspecifics. Anim Behav 81:779–787

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell MB, Radford AN, Rose R, Wade HM, Ridley AR (2009) The value of constant surveillance in a risky environment. Proc R Soc Lond B 276:2997–3005

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blumstein DT, Daniel JC, Griffin AS, Evans CS (2000) Insular tammar wallabies (Macropus eugenii) respond to visual but not acoustic cues from predators. Behav Ecol 11:528–535

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brewer D (2001) Wrens, dippers and thrashers. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Burhans DE (2000) Avoiding the nest: responses of field sparrows to the threat of nest predation. Auk 117:803–806

    Google Scholar 

  • Caro T (2005) Antipredator defenses in birds and mammals. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Chariff RA, Mitchell S, Clark CW (1995) Canary 1.2 user’s manual. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Curio E (1993) Proximate and developmental aspects of antipredator behavior. Adv Stud Behav 22:135–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eggers S, Griesser M, Ekman J (2005) Predator-induced plasticity in nest visitation rates in the Siberian jay (Perisoreus infaustus). Behav Ecol 16:309–315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans CS, Evans L, Marler P (1993) On the meaning of alarm calls: functional reference in an avian vocal system. Anim Behav 46:23–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fallow PM, Gardner JL, Magrath RD (2011) Sound familiar? Acoustic similarity provokes responses to unfamiliar heterospecific alarm calls. Behav Ecol 22:401–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fasanella M, Fernández GJ (2009) Alarm calls of the southern house wren, Troglodytes musculus: variation with nesting stage and predator model. J Ornithol 150:853–863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernández GJ, Corral MG, Carro ME (2012) Variation in the alarm calls of southern house wrens (Troglodytes musculus). Emu 112:71–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galway NW (2006) Introduction to mixed modelling. Wiley, San Francisco

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Goodale E, Kotagama SW (2008) Response to conspecific and heterospecific alarm calls in mixed-species bird flocks of a Sri Lankan rainforest. Behav Ecol 19:887–894

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hauser MD, Caffrey C (1994) Anti-predator response to raptor calls in wild crows, Corvus brachyrhynchos hesperis. Anim Behav 48:1469–1471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lind J, Jöngren F, Nilsson J, Alm DS, Strandmark A (2005) Information, predation risk and foraging decisions during mobbing in great tits Parus major. Ornis Fennica 82:89–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Llambías PE, Fernández GJ (2009) Effects of nestboxes on the breeding biology of southern house wrens Troglodytes aedon bonariae in the southern temperate zone. Ibis 151:113–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magrath RD, Pitcher BJ, Gardner JL (2007) A mutual understanding? Interspecific responses by birds to each other’s aerial alarm calls. Behav Ecol 18:944–951

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magrath RD, Pitcher BJ, Gardner JL (2009) An avian eavesdropping network: alarm signal reliability and heterospecific response. Behav Ecol 20:745–752

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marler P (1955) Characteristics of some animal calls. Nature 176:6–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin TE, Scott J, Menge C (2000) Nest predation increases with parental activity: separating nest site and parental activity effects. Proc R Soc Lond B 267:2287–2293

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McGregor PK (1993) Signalling in territorial systems: a context for individual identification, ranging and eavesdropping. Phil Trans R Soc B 340:237–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGregor PK, Peake TM (2000) Communication networks: social environments for receiving and signaling behaviour. Acta Ethol 2:71–81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mennill DJ, Ratcliffe LM, Boag PT (2002) Female eavesdropping on male song contests in songbirds. Science 296:873

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Orrock JL, Danielson BJ, Brinkerhoff RJ (2004) Rodent foraging is affected by indirect, but not by direct, cues of predation risk. Behav Ecol 15:433–437

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peake TM, Terry AMR, McGregor PK, Dabelsteen T (2002) Do great tits assess rivals by combining direct experience with information gathered by eavesdropping? Proc R Soc Lond B 269:1925–1929

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rainey HJ, Zuberbühler K, Slater PJB (2004) Hornbills can distinguish between primate alarm calls. Proc R Soc Lond B 271:755–759

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL (1990) The assessment by vervet monkeys of their own and another species’ alarm calls. Anim Behav 40:754–764

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL, Marler P (1980) Monkey responses to three different alarm calls: evidence of predator classification and semantic communication. Science 210:801–803

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Templeton CN, Greene E (2007) Nuthatches eavesdrop on variations in heterospecific chickadee mobbing calls. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:5479–5482

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thorson JM, Morgan RA, Brown JS, Norman JE (1998) Direct and indirect cues of predatory risk and patch use by fox squirrels and thirteen-lined ground squirrels. Behav Ecol 9:151–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van der Veen IT (2002) Seeing is believing: information about predators influences yellowhammer behavior. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 51:466–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zuberbühler K, Noe R, Seyfarth RM (1997) Diana monkey long-distance calls: messages for conspecifics and predators. Anim Behav 53:589–604

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the Whisky-Michelli family and Luis Martinez for allowing us to work on their ranches at Buenos Aires. We also thank Pablo L. Tubaro for facilitating song recordings from the bird sound collection of the Ornithology Division at the Museo de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Indrikis Krams for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. This work was supported by University of Buenos Aires (X434 and 20020090200117) and CONICET grants (PIP112-200901-00011) to G.J.F.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Gabriela Corral.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Corral, M.G., Llambías, P.E. & Fernández, G.J. Effect of conspecific alarm calls in the parental behaviour of nesting southern house wrens. acta ethol 16, 47–51 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-012-0129-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-012-0129-x

Keywords

Navigation