Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
Emu Emu Society
Journal of BirdLife Australia
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > MU > MU03053 > Fulltext
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 105(1)

Geographic variation in vocalisations of Satin Bowerbirds, Ptilonorynchus violaceus, in south-eastern Queensland

E. J. Tack A B C , D. A. Putland A , T. E. Robson A and A. W. Goldizen A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Integrative Biology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia.

B Present address: School of Environmental and Information Sciences, Charles Sturt University, PO Box 789, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: etack@csu.edu.au

Emu 105(1) 27-31 https://doi.org/10.1071/MU03053
Submitted: 17 October 2003  Accepted: 4 October 2004   Published: 31 March 2005

Abstract

Geographic variation in the advertisement call of the male Satin Bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus, was investigated in three populations in south-eastern Queensland. The call was found to differ significantly among the three geographically distinct populations. A discriminant function analysis using five measurements of call frequency and duration provided 100% classification success of the 25 individuals. The observed geographic variation in this call may result from adaptation to the local acoustic environment in these populations, or from genetic or cultural divergence among populations. Further research involving the acoustic properties of the habitats, population genetics and a larger number of populations is required to fully understand this pattern of call variation.


Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the assistance of a number of people who helped locate bowers and allowed us to take recordings on their properties, including residents of Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious, Tim O’Reilly and family at Lamington National Park, and Helen, Michael and Kym Stirling at the Bunya Mountains. David Westcott gave invaluable advice on equipment and techniques. Many thanks also to the Rangers at Green Mountains and Brisbane Forest Park for all their assistance and to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.


References

Anderson, M. E. , and Conner, R. N. (1985). Northern cardinal song in three forest habitats in eastern Texas. Wilson Bulletin 97, 436–449.
Charif R. A., Mitchell S., and Clarke C. W. (1995). ‘Canary 1.2 User’s Manual.’ (Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology: Ithaca, NY.)

Conover, W. J. , and Iman, R. L. (1981). Rank transformations as a bridge between parametric and nonparametric statistics. American Statistician 35, 124–129.
Frith C. B., and Frith D. W. (2004). ‘The Bowerbirds.’ (Oxford University Press: Oxford.)

Harris, M. A. , and Lemon, R. E. (1974). Songs of song sparrows: reactions of males to songs of different localities. Condor 76, 33–44.
Kroodsma D. E. (1996). Ecology of passerine song development. In ‘Ecology and Evolution of Acoustic Communication in Birds’. (Eds D. E. Kroodsma and E. H. Miller.) pp. 3–19. (Cornell University Press: Ithaca.)

Lemon, R. E. (1975). How birds develop song dialects. Condor 77, 385–406.
Marshall A. J. (1954). ‘Bower-birds. Their Displays and Breeding Cycles.’ (Clarendon Press: Oxford, UK.)

Miller E. H. (1982). Character and variance shift in acoustic signals of birds. In ‘Acoustic Communication in Birds. Vol. 1’. (Eds D. E. Kroodsma and E. H. Miller.) pp. 253–295. (Academic Press: New York.)

Morton, E. S. (1975). Ecological sources of selection on avian sounds. American Naturalist 109, 17–34.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Mundinger P. C. (1982). Microgeographic and macrogeographic variation in the acquired vocalizations of birds. In ‘Acoustic Communication in Birds. Vol. 2’. (Eds D. E. Kroodsma and E. H. Miller.) pp.147–208. (Academic Press: London, UK.)

Naughler, C. T. , and Ratcliffe, L. (1994). Character release in bird song: a test of the acoustic competition hypothesis using American Tree Sparrows Spizella arborea. Journal of Avian Biology 25, 142–148.
Payne R. B. (1980). Population structure and social behavior: models for testing the ecological significance of song dialects in birds. In ‘Natural Selection and Social Behaviour: Recent Research and New Theory’. (Eds R. D. Alexander and D. W. Tinkle.) pp. 108–120. (Academic Press: New York.)

Petrinovich, L. , and Patterson, T. L. (1981). The responses of White-crowned Sparrows to songs of different dialects and subspecies. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 57, 1–14.


Richards, D. G. , and Wiley, R. H. (1980). Reverberations and amplitude fluctuations in the propagations of sound in a forest: implications for animal communication. American Naturalist 115, 381–399.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Shy, E. (1983). The relation of geographical variation in song to habitat characteristics and body size in North American Tanagers (Thraupinae:Piranga). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 12, 71–76.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Smith, J. I. , and Yu, H. (1992). The association between vocal characteristics and habitat type in Taiwanese passerines. Zoological Science 9, 659–664.


Sorjonen, J. (1986). Factors affecting the structure of song and the singing behaviour of some northern European passerine birds. Behaviour 98, 286–304.


Tomback, D. F. , and Baker, M. C. (1984). Assortative mating by White-crowned Sparrows at song dialect boundaries. Animal Behaviour 32, 465–469.


Uy, J. A. C. , and Borgia, G. (2000). Sexual selection drives rapid divergence in bowerbird display traits. Evolution 54, 273–278.
| PubMed |

Wasserman, F. E. (1979). The relationship between habitat and song in the White-throated Sparrow. Condor 81, 424–426.


Westcott, D. A. , and Kroon, F. J. (2002). Geographic song variation and its consequences in the Golden Bowerbird. Condor 104, 750–760.