Male and female song structure and singing behaviour in the duetting eastern whipbird, Psophodes olivaceus
Amy C. RogersDepartment of Zoology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3010, Australia. Email: amy.c.rogers@gmail.com
Australian Journal of Zoology 53(3) 157-166 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO04083
Submitted: 4 December 2004 Accepted: 22 April 2005 Published: 16 June 2005
Abstract
In many tropical bird species, partners combine their songs to form precise duets, of which the function is imperfectly understood. Duet structure and sex differences in vocal strategies may be important indicators of different selective pressures that have led to the evolution and maintenance of these complex acoustic displays. This study examines the singing behaviour of a population of the eastern whipbird, a bird that forms antiphonal duets initiated exclusively by the male. In all, 7% of duets recorded were between a paired female and a male other than her social partner. Males sang more often than females, their songs were longer and moved through a wider frequency range, and they had a larger song repertoire. Females sang two types of song: response songs, used primarily in a duet context, and structurally distinct solo songs, typically used during interactions with other females. Eastern whipbirds lacked unique song types among the repertoires of individual males and females. Males and females combined songs non-randomly to produce specific duets that were shared across the population. Results suggested that song and duet type matching might play an important role in intrasex interactions, such as defence of a territory, or a partner, from same-sex intruders.
Acknowledgments
This study would not have been possible without the assistance of a large number of people. I’m grateful to Murray Littlejohn for providing recording equipment and to Sophie Allebone-Webb, Zoe Birtle, Chris Boland, Elisa Bone, Eric Liebgold, Joah Madden, Golo Maurer, James Nicholls, Dean Portelli, Tami Ramson, Jennifer Reimer, Carl Rothfelds, Stacie Schoppman, Reagan Szabo and Wouter van Dongen for providing help in the field. Research was supported by the American Natural History Museum (Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fund), Australian Geographic, Birds Australia, the British Federation of Women Graduates, the Gould League of NSW, the Linnean Society of NSW, the Norman Wettenhall Foundation, the Holsworth Wildlife Research Fund, the Royal Zoological Society of NSW and an IPRS award from the University of Melbourne. Bird trapping and banding were carried out under the authority of NSW Parks, licence A2841 (B2186), the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme, authority number 2443, and the Animal Care and Ethics Committee of NSW Agriculture, permit AW2000/042. Naomi Langmore and Raoul Mulder provided helpful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.
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