Trill performance components vary with age, season, and motivation in the banded wren

• Published in: Behavioral ecology and sociobiology 2013-03, Vol.67 (3), p.409-419
• Main Authors: Vehrencamp, S. L., Yantachka, J., Hall, M. L., de Kort, S. R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustics; Age; Aggressive behavior; Animal communication; Animal Ecology; Animal reproduction; Animal vocalization; Aviculture; Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Bird nesting; Bird songs; Breeding seasons; Dawn chorus; Life Sciences; Male animals; Mating behavior; Motivation; Original Paper; Seasons; Signal bandwidth; Singing; Zoology
• ISSN: 0340-5443; 1432-0762
• DOI: 10.1007/s00265-012-1461-x

Acoustic displays with difficult-to-execute sounds are often subject to strong sexual selection because performance levels are related to the sender's condition or genetic quality. Performance may also vary with age, breeding stage, and motivation related to social context. We focused on within-male variation in four components of trill performance in banded wren (Thryophilus pleurostictus) songs: note consistency, frequency bandwidth, note rate, and vocal deviation. The latter is a composite measure reflecting deviation from the performance limit on simultaneously maximizing both frequency bandwidth and note rate. We compared the changes in these song parameters at three time scales: over the course of years, across the breeding season, and at different times of the day with contrasting agonistic contexts. Vocal deviation decreased and note consistency increased between years, suggesting that experience may improve individual proficiency at singing trills. Consistency also increased across the season, confirming that practice is important for this parameter. Although there was no significant seasonal change in vocal deviation, one of its components, note rate, increased during the season. Neither vocal deviation nor consistency varied with agonistic context. However, note rate increased during playback experiments simulating territorial intrusions compared to dawn chorus singing. The magnitude of a male's increase in note rate was positively correlated with his aggressive behavior during the playback experiment. Thus consistency, bandwidth, and vocal deviation indicate age, whereas trill rate flexibly indicates the singer's aggressive motivation. We also found evidence of a within-male trade-off between vocal deviation and consistency.