Abstract
Acoustic signaling among birds is central to intra-species communication, courtship, and reproductive success, and so habitat suitability is partially dependent upon the availability of a suitable acoustic niche. It is well documented that birds may modify their vocal behavior to avoid overlap with anthropogenic noise pollution, but responses to biotic signal making are less well understood. This study uses more than 50,000 h of audio recorded in tropical forest, and machine learning methods for the detection of the vocalizations of nine species of bird and tymbalizations of three species of cicada to examine patterns of signal masking and co-chorusing avoidance among species pairs. Among these focal species, no bird avoided co-chorusing with any other bird. Birds avoided co-chorusing with cicadas only and always when (1) the bird vocalized in a frequency band completely overlapped by the cicada tymbalization, and (2) the cicada tymbalization saturated the majority of that frequency band. These results indicate that avian behavioral modifications in response to biotic noise in longstanding species communities is similar to behavioral modifications observed in populations subjected to high levels of anthropogenic noise pollution—in all cases overlap avoidance is species-specific and dependent upon both frequency and intensity.
Zusammenfassung
Regenwaldvögel vermeiden biotische Signalmaskierung nur bei hoher akustischer Sättigung
Akustische Signalübertragung zwischen Vögeln ist von zentraler Bedeutung für die Kommunikation innerhalb der Art, die Balz und den Fortpflanzungserfolg. Daher hängt die Eignung eines Lebensraums zumindest teilweise von der Verfügbarkeit geeigneter akustischer Nischen ab. Es ist wohl bekannt, dass Vögel ihr Stimmverhalten verändern können, um Überschneidungen mit anthropogener Lärmbelästigung zu vermeiden. Ihre Reaktionen auf Signalmaskierung seitens biotischer Quellen sind jedoch weniger gut verstanden. Diese Studie basiert auf 50.000 Stunden von Audio-Material, welches in tropischen Wäldern aufgenommen wurde, sowie auf Methoden des maschinellen Lernens zur Erkennung der Lautäußerungen von neun Vogelarten und der Timbalisationen von drei Zikadenarten, um Muster der Signalmaskierung und der Vermeidung des simultanen Vokalisierens zwischen Artenpaaren zu untersuchen. Unter den Schwerpunktarten vermied keiner der Vögel simultanes Vokalisieren mit einer anderen Vogelart. Vögel vermieden simultanes Vokalisieren mit Zikaden immer nur dann, wenn (1) das Frequenzband der Vogelstimme ganz mit dem der Zikaden-Timbalisation überlappte, und wenn (2) die Zikaden-Timbalisation den Großteil dieses Frequenzbands sättigte. Diese Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Verhaltensveränderungen in Vögeln als Reaktion auf biotischen Lärm in langjährigen Artengemeinschaften denjenigen Verhaltensveränderungen ähneln, die in Populationen beobachtet werden, welche in einem hohen Ausmaß anthropogener Lärmbelästigung ausgesetzt sind – in all diesen Fällen ist die Vermeidung von Überscheidungen artspezifisch und hängt von Frequenz und Intensität ab.
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Data availability
Original audio files are archived in the Fonoteca Neotropical Jacques Vielliard (FNJV) Audiovisual Collection [https://www2.ib.unicamp.br/fnjv/].
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Funding
Funding was provided by the Wildlife Reserves Singapore Conservation Fund.
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Laura Berman and Frank Rheindt contributed towards study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Laura Berman and Ulmar Grafe. Machine learning species classifiers and data analysis were done by Laura Berman and Wei Xuan Tan. The first draft of this manuscript was prepared by Laura Berman. All authors contributed towards and approved the final manuscript.
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Audio equipment was deployed under Singapore National Parks Board permit number NP/RP19-113. All work done in association with this manuscript complies with the current laws of the countries in which it was performed.
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Communicated by T. S. Osiejuk.
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Berman, L.M., Tan, W.X., Grafe, U. et al. Rainforest birds avoid biotic signal masking only in cases of high acoustic saturation. J Ornithol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-024-02158-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-024-02158-z