A great tit does not sing the same song as the neighbour

Submitted by Looduskalender on Wed, 02.03.2016 - 23:58
Autorid
Science news of the great tit year conveyed by Marko Mägi, marko.magi@ut.ee
Photo Arne Ader
Translation  Liis
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Rivalry between great tits 

Most of the interactions between birds proceeds by way of singing – so messages aimed at strangers („Don’t come here!“) as well as neighbours („Here is my border line!“) reach many at the same time and help to avoid direct physical settling of accounts. In singing, relations to neighbours are also established and maintained. When in early spring the males of species with territorial instincts begin to assert their owners’ rights, aggressive clashes with neighbours are rarer in areas with defined borders established over the years – it saves both time and energy for the birds.

If a neighbour sings similarly a situation could occur when the two sing at the same time and – often. But great tits interpret the similarity of the singing and interfering in the singing as signals of aggression and such behaviour may end in a brawl. Moreover, it is difficult for the females to distinguish between similarly singing males. As a result they may “kick over the traces”, to the displeasure of the males. To make themselves sound better, immediate neighbours should not sing very similarly, and males nesting close to each other should adjust their singing with respect to the neighbours.

In the Netherlands a study was carried out to establish to what extent the song of a male tit depends on the songs of neighbours and whether the songs of tits living at close distance differs more from each other than from that of males nesting farther away?

The early morning song of male tits was recorded in a period when the females were fertile (during egg-laying time) and catching and keeping their attention was very important for the success of the males. The recordings showed that the condition as such of the males did not affect the song. However it turned out on analyzing the distances between the neighbours that immediate neighbours presented their songs with significantly different frequencies (the average difference was 3,3 songs per minute) compared to males nesting farther from each other. The time when singing started did not depend on the proximity of the neighbour, but immediate neighbours – those whose territory borders overlapped – started singing at asimilar time in the morning.

Some of the elements in the song of great tits (e g the time used for singing and the type of song) are relatively constant over time for individual birds. Since in the breeding season close and more distant tits sing at the same time for several weeks it would be cumbersome to change one’s song to fit in with the neighbours. Adjustments are evidently made in the beginning of the nesting season when new neighbours settle down. The difference between neighbours in frequency of the early morning singing is either conscious – to avoid interfering with each other  –  or a result of the differences in singing of the males that occupy the territories.

 
Snijders L, van der Eijk J, van Rooij EP, de Goede P, van Oers K, Naguib M (2015) Song Trait Similarity in Great Tits Varies with Social Structure. PLoS ONE10(2): e0116881. doi:10.1371/journal.
 
See also the Bird of the Year home page

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