TY - JOUR
T1 - Sequential organization of birdsong
T2 - Relationships with individual quality and fitness
AU - Zsebok, Sándor
AU - Herczeg, Gábor
AU - Laczi, Miklós
AU - Nagy, Gergely
AU - Vaskuti, Éva
AU - Hargitai, Rita
AU - Hegyi, Gergely
AU - Herényi, Márton
AU - Markó, Gábor
AU - Rosivall, Balázs
AU - Szász, Eszter
AU - Szöllosi, Eszter
AU - Török, János
AU - Garamszegi, László Zsolt
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Many vocalizing animals produce the discrete elements of their acoustic signals in a specific sequential order, but we know little about the biological relevance of this ordering. For that, we must characterize the degree by which individuals differ in how they organize their signals sequentially and relate these differences to variation in quality and fitness. In this study, we fulfilled these tasks in male collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis). We characterized the sequential order of syllables with a network analysis approach and studied the consistency of network variables on distinct time scales (within day, between days, and between years), and assessed their relationship with such quality indicators like age, body condition, arrival date, and fitness related proxies like survival to the next year and pairing success. We found that the syllables were associated nonrandomly with one another and both the frequency differences of consecutive syllables and the number of motif types were higher in the original than in randomized syllable sequences. Average degree and small-worldness showed considerable among-individual differences and decreasing repeatability with increasing time scale. Furthermore, we found relationships between male age and average degree among and within individuals. Accordingly, older males produce syllable sequences by using common syllables less often than younger individuals. However, the network variables showed no relationship with fitness-related variables. In conclusion, the sequential organization of birdsong has the potential to encode individual-specific characteristics, which thus could be used as signal in social interactions and thus potentially could be subject to sexual selection.
AB - Many vocalizing animals produce the discrete elements of their acoustic signals in a specific sequential order, but we know little about the biological relevance of this ordering. For that, we must characterize the degree by which individuals differ in how they organize their signals sequentially and relate these differences to variation in quality and fitness. In this study, we fulfilled these tasks in male collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis). We characterized the sequential order of syllables with a network analysis approach and studied the consistency of network variables on distinct time scales (within day, between days, and between years), and assessed their relationship with such quality indicators like age, body condition, arrival date, and fitness related proxies like survival to the next year and pairing success. We found that the syllables were associated nonrandomly with one another and both the frequency differences of consecutive syllables and the number of motif types were higher in the original than in randomized syllable sequences. Average degree and small-worldness showed considerable among-individual differences and decreasing repeatability with increasing time scale. Furthermore, we found relationships between male age and average degree among and within individuals. Accordingly, older males produce syllable sequences by using common syllables less often than younger individuals. However, the network variables showed no relationship with fitness-related variables. In conclusion, the sequential organization of birdsong has the potential to encode individual-specific characteristics, which thus could be used as signal in social interactions and thus potentially could be subject to sexual selection.
KW - Fitness
KW - Male quality
KW - Network analysis
KW - Repeatability
KW - Syllable sequence
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U2 - 10.1093/beheco/araa104
DO - 10.1093/beheco/araa104
M3 - Article
C2 - 33708006
SN - 1045-2249
VL - 32
SP - 82
EP - 93
JO - Behavioral Ecology
JF - Behavioral Ecology
IS - 1
ER -