Dawn chorus interpretation differs when using songs or calls: the Dupont’s Lark Chersophilus duponti case

PeerJ

article

Cristian Pérez-Granados¹  Tomasz S. Osiejuk³  Germán M. López-Iborra¹ 

[1] Ecology Department/Multidisciplinary Institute for Environmental Studies “Ramón Margalef”, Universidad de Alicante;Current affiiation: Terrestrial Ecology Group ,(TEG-UAM), Department of Ecology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid;Department of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan

关键词: Acoustic;    Call;    Mate attraction;    Passerine;    Song;    Territorial defence;    Vocalization;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.5241

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundTerritorial songbirds vocalise intensively before sunrise and then decrease their vocal activity. This creates a communication network that disseminates essential information for both males and females. The function of dawn chorus in birds has been frequently interpreted according to seasonal variation of singing as the breeding season advances, but potential differences in seasonal variation of song and calls for the same species have not been taken into account.MethodsWe chose Dupont’s Lark as a model species to study whether the seasonal pattern of dawn chorus differs between singing and calling activity, because in this species most daily songs and calls are uttered at dawn. We registered vocal activity of Dupont’s Lark before and around dawn in three different populations, through repeated sampling over the entire breeding season of two consecutive years.ResultsWe found that dawn singing parameters remained constant or presented an increasing trend while dawn calling activity decreased as breeding season advanced. We also found different daily patterns for singing and calling, with birds calling mostly during the first 30 minutes of dawn choruses and singing peaking afterwards.DiscussionThe different time patterns of songs and calls may indicate that they serve diverse functions at dawn in the Dupont’s Lark. Relaxation of dawn calling activity after the first month of the breeding season would suggest that dawn calling may be mainly related to mate attraction, while constant dawn singing throughout the breeding period would support a relationship of dawn singing to territorial defence. Our study highlights that the type of vocalisation used is an important factor to consider in further research on dawn choruses, since results may differ depending on whether calls or songs are analysed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY