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© 1990 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

research-article

Song matching and the perception of song types in great tits, Parus major

Daniel M. Weary, J. Bruce Falls and Peter K. McGregor

Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology Oxford, UK

Address reprint requests to D. M. Weary, who is now at the Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6. J. B. Falls is now at the Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. P. K. Mc-Gregor is now at the Department of Zoology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.

ABSTRACT

We played two similar song types to territorial male great tits (Parus major) from the birds' own repertoires. These song types are classified in the literature on the basis of differences in a single feature, phrase length, although many features could be used to distinguish between them. The birds tended to reply with the same song as that being played (that is, they matched playback), indicating that they too perceived these songs as being different. When the phrase length of one song in the pair was manipulated so as to simulate that of the other, subjects showed a decreased rate of matching and an increased rate of response with the other song in the pair. These results demonstrate that phrase length was an important feature in the birds' discrimination. However, the majority of responses to manipulated songs were matches to its type rather than to length, indicating that great tits rely on features in addition to phrase length to distinguish among their songs.


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