We compared male courtship, mate guarding, copulation rates, and aggression between the treatment groups. We experimentally manipulated the opportunity for extra-pair mating to create two levels of sperm competition risk: 1) Single-pair, no sperm competition risk 2) Double-pair, sperm competition risk. In this pre-registered study, we investigated how male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, adjust their behavior to sperm competition risk. Such adaptive phenotypic adjustment we here refer to as male social niche conformance. Thus, sperm competition risk represents a key dimension of the male social environment to which individual males are expected to adaptively adjust their reproductive phenotype. Success in sperm competition is an important determinant of male fitness in mating systems with female multiple mating. This review summarizes research done on the imprinting behaviour of precocial bird species, on the ability of barn owls to detect prey and on the vocal communication of songbirds.
Also, studies suggest pervasive multisensory influences throughout the avian brain. Cross-modal influences on the control of sensorimotor processes occur in circumstances of sensory loss. Avian species exhibit a great diversity of behaviours and these species have provided evidence that multisensory processes benefit by the learning that occurs in natural situations. Much work has been done with mammalian models but research on avian species also expands our knowledge on multisensory processes. Many studies have focused on how sensory information from distinct modalities are integrated and showed that numerous behavioural and cognitive benefits are provided by multisensory processes. Yet, we experience a coherent and unified world. World experiences involve multisensory stimulation that arises simultaneously from multiple sources. Together, these results demonstrate that birdsong has important functions beyond territoriality and mate choice, illustrating its importance in coordination and cohesion of social units within larger societies. Our playback reveals that song actively features in social aggregations as it attracts conspecifics. We show that zebra finches frequently sing while in groups, that breeding status influences song output at the nest and at aggregations, that they sing year round, and that they predominantly sing when with their partner, suggesting that the song remains important after pair formation. Here, we test this idea using data from 5 years of field studies, including observational transects, focal and year-round audio recordings, and a large-scale playback experiment. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 We hypothesize that zebra finch song functions to maintain social cohesion and to synchronize breeding. 8, 9 As males are not territorial, and pairs form long-term monogamous bonds early in life, conventional theory predicts that zebra finches should not sing much at all however, they do and their song is the focus of hundreds of lab-based studies. In these social songbirds, only the males sing, and pairs breed synchronously in loose colonies, 6, 7 following aseasonal rain events in their arid habitat. Therefore, alternative functions of song, such as social cohesion 3 and synchronization of breeding, by and large, were overlooked even in such well-studied species such as the zebra finch ( Taeniopygia guttata). 1, 2 However, increasing reports of singing in non-reproductive contexts 3 and by females 4, 5 show that song use is more diverse than previously considered.
Male songbirds sing to establish territories and to attract mates.
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