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Corn bunting (Miliaria calandra) males respond differently to alternating and overlapping playback of song

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Abstract

Interactive playback experiments were used to study the signal value to the corn bunting, Miliaria calandra, of alternating and overlapping singing. We subjected 15 males to two stimuli that differed in the temporal pattern of song playback (alternating or overlapping). We measured eight characteristics of the males’ response in two categories—song output and movements. Overlapping and alternating playback elicited a similar song response, characteristic of highly aroused males. Song response correlated positively with males’ singing activity before playback, irrespective of stimulus. There were significant differences between latency of approach to the loudspeaker and number of flights. Birds approached the loudspeaker more quickly and spent more time close to it when playback alternated with their songs. The results suggest overlapping song could be interpreted as a stronger threat but elicits a more cautious, rather than stronger, response than the alternating pattern. Males were found to shorten songs during the playback compared with songs sung before and after stimulation. The only predictor of degree of song shortening was song activity before the playback began. It should, therefore, be regarded as a signal which is related to escalated, close-distance counter-singing.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Michelle Hall, Piotr Tryjanowski, and anonymous reviewers for critical remarks on the manuscript. TSO is truly indebted to Sandra Vehrencamp, Michelle Hall, and Thorsten Balsby for their invaluable help during his stay at Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We thank John Burt for allowing us to use his software Syrinx to perform interactive playback experiments. The scholarship to TSO was funded by the Foundation for Polish Science. This research was funded by the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN grant no. 6 P04C 038 17 to TSO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioural Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61-614, Poznań, Poland

    Tomasz S. Osiejuk, Katarzyna Ratyńska & Jakub P. Cygan

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  1. Tomasz S. Osiejuk
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  2. Katarzyna Ratyńska
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  3. Jakub P. Cygan
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Correspondence to Tomasz S. Osiejuk.

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Osiejuk, T.S., Ratyńska, K. & Cygan, J.P. Corn bunting (Miliaria calandra) males respond differently to alternating and overlapping playback of song. J Ethol 25, 159–168 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-006-0010-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-006-0010-3

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