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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on December 7, 2005
Behavioral Ecology 2006 17(2):260-269; doi:10.1093/beheco/arj022
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Overlapping signals in banded wrens: long-term effects of prior experience on males and females

Michelle L. Hall, Anya Illes and Sandra L. Vehrencamp

Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA

Address correspondence to M.L. Hall. E-mail: mlh54{at}cornell.edu.

We tested the signal value of song overlapping in banded wrens (Thryothorus pleurostictus), using interactive playback to either overlap or alternate with their songs. Males shortened song duration and decreased variability in song length when their songs were overlapped by playback, suggesting that they were attempting to avoid being overlapped and perhaps being less aggressive. A novel finding was an effect of long-term prior experience: song lengths remained relatively short in alternating trials that followed two or more days after overlapping trials. Approach responses to the two treatments did not differ overall, but there was a parallel effect of prior experience: males tended to stay further from the speaker during alternating treatments if they had previously been overlapped by playback. Some females paired to the male subjects sang in response to playback and were also influenced by prior experience, singing more during alternating trials that had not been preceded by an overlapping trial. Male overlappers may signal dominance over a rival to other male or female receivers in a communication network, but it is currently unclear whether overlapping indicates motivation to escalate an aggressive interaction or whether this singing strategy is related to male quality. Banded wrens are long lived and maintain year-round territories, so modifying responses to rivals based on prior experience is likely to be important for success.

Key words: communication networks, interactive signals, female song, male quality, song overlap.


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