Seasonal variation in mobbing behaviour of passerine birds

When they detect a predator, many birds exhibit mobbing behaviour and produce mobbing calls that quickly draw other prey against the predator. This anti-predator strategy often involves several species and, therefore, implies heterospecific communication. As fledging and nestling stages could be par...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of ornithology 2019-04, Vol.160 (2), p.509-514
Main Authors: Dutour, Mylène, Cordonnier, Marion, Léna, Jean-Paul, Lengagne, Thierry
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anti-predator behavior
Biodiversity and Ecology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Breeding seasons
Calling behavior
Cyanistes caeruleus
Ecology
Environmental Sciences
Fish & Wildlife Biology & Management
Life Sciences
Mobbing
Original Article
Parus major
Playback
Predators
Prey
Seasonal variations
Seasons
Sitta europaea
Species
Troglodytes troglodytes
Zoology
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Summary:When they detect a predator, many birds exhibit mobbing behaviour and produce mobbing calls that quickly draw other prey against the predator. This anti-predator strategy often involves several species and, therefore, implies heterospecific communication. As fledging and nestling stages could be particularly targeted by predators, a high mobbing intensity is to be expected during the breeding season. While recognizing other species’ mobbing calls is critical to setting up this behaviour, to date, we have no information about the perception of these calls with regard to the season. Here, we used playbacks of mobbing calls to study the variation in response of the Great Tit ( Parus major ) and the Blue Tit ( Cyanistes caeruleus ) exposed to the mobbing calls of two heterospecific species, the Eurasian Nuthatch ( Sitta europaea ), and the Eurasian Wren ( Troglodytes troglodytes ). To investigate mobbing response seasonality, we conducted playback experiments during spring (breeding season) and autumn (non-breeding season). Contrary to most previous studies, we found that mobbing intensity was greater in autumn than in spring. Additionally, although neither Nuthatch nor Wren is related to the Tit family, we found that both Tit species responded more to the former than the latter species. At the heterospecific communication level, this study demonstrates a previously unsuspected level of complexity in the use of mobbing calls.
ISSN:2193-7192
1559-4491
2193-7206
DOI:10.1007/s10336-019-01630-5