Song Learning as Evidenced from Song Sharing in Two Hummingbird Species (Colibri coruscans and C. thalassinus)

We have demonstrated that male hummingbirds in the genus Colibri share song types. The Sparkling Violet-ear (C. coruscans) from an Ecuadorian population and Green Violetear (C. thalassinus) from populations in Costa Rica form aggregates or neighborhoods. Males of a neighborhood sing the same song ty...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Auk 1994-01, Vol.111 (1), p.87-103
Main Authors: Sandra L. L. Gaunt, Baptista, Luis F., Julio E. Sánchez, Hernandez, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal vocalization
Bird songs
Cluster analysis
Colibri thalassinus
Hummingbirds
Male animals
Mantels
Mating behavior
Neighborhoods
Ornithology
Singing
Spectrograms
Trochilidae
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Summary:We have demonstrated that male hummingbirds in the genus Colibri share song types. The Sparkling Violet-ear (C. coruscans) from an Ecuadorian population and Green Violetear (C. thalassinus) from populations in Costa Rica form aggregates or neighborhoods. Males of a neighborhood sing the same song type and those of distant neighborhoods have different song types. The resultant geographic variation in song, we suggest, is due to cultural drift acquired through song learning. Song sharing was determined not only by traditional, visual examination of spectrograms of song but with a relatively new, digital cross-correlation method that permits statistical treatment. The statistical procedures included cluster analysis that reflects the distribution of songs in geographic space and an evaluation for randomness of that distribution by use of the Mantel test.
ISSN:0004-8038
1938-4254
2732-4613
DOI:10.2307/4088508