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Risky revelations: Superb Fairy-wrens Malurus cyaneus respond more strongly to their mate’s alarm song

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Abstract

The study of animal communication during predator encounters has provided insights into the function of kin selection, the ontogeny of vocal development, and the mechanism of predator recognition. Less attention has been devoted to the study of geographic variation in alarm vocalisation behaviour. Here, we describe an alarm song produced by Superb Fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) under immediate threat of predation. We quantify geographic and individual variation in alarm song. Next, we used playback experiments to measure the effect of familiar versus unfamiliar alarm song on the response of the pair partner to its mate’s alarm song. We found both geographic (element frequencies across sites) and sex-based (females had larger bandwidth) differences in alarm song. Playback of the alarm song evoked distinct anti-predator behavioural responses, whereby the alarm song of mates evoked stronger alarm responses (faster latency to respond, longer latency to feed, more head movements, and change in vocalisation types) than those of unfamiliar birds. We discuss the benefits of geographic and individual variation in alarm song, which may be particularly favoured in long-lived sedentary species that form pair bonds.

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Acknowledgments

Field experiments were approved by the Animal Welfare Committee at Flinders University (permits E203 and E211) and by the Department for Environment and Heritage (permit A25132). We thank Janet Gardner and Robert Magrath at the School of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University, for the loan of the life-size gliding model sparrowhawk. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council, the Department for Environment and Heritage, the Sir Mark Mitchell Foundation, and the Holsworth Foundation. Finally, we thank Annika Robertson for her accurate drawing of wren alarm behaviour.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

    Diane Colombelli-Négrel, Jeremy Robertson & Sonia Kleindorfer

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  1. Diane Colombelli-Négrel
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  2. Jeremy Robertson
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  3. Sonia Kleindorfer
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Correspondence to Jeremy Robertson.

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Communicated by T. Friedl.

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Colombelli-Négrel, D., Robertson, J. & Kleindorfer, S. Risky revelations: Superb Fairy-wrens Malurus cyaneus respond more strongly to their mate’s alarm song. J Ornithol 152, 127–135 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-010-0557-1

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