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The song doesn't remain the same in fragmented bird populations
March 19, 2008The song of passerine birds is a conspicuous and exaggerated display shaped by sexual selection in the context of male-male competition or mate attraction. At the level of the individual, song is considered an indicator of male 'quality'.
Paola Laiolo and colleagues at the Spanish Council of Research (CSIC) studied the metapopulation system of the Dupont's lark in north-eastern Spain and found an association between individual song diversity and the viability of the population as a whole, as measured by the annual rate of population change. This association arises because males from the most numerous and productive populations, i.e. those less prone to extinction, sang songs with greater complexity. The findings are published in this week's PLoS ONE.
Birds from smaller populations sang less complex songs as they experienced a poor cultural milieu (as songs are learned), and had possibly a lower mating success. Cultural attributes may therefore reflect not only individual-level characteristics, but also emergent population-level properties. This finding opens the way to the study of animal cultural diversity in the increasingly common human-altered landscapes.
More than 500 songbird species are globally threatened, most of them because of habitat loss and fragmentation in a variety of ecosystems and remote regions. In these conditions, traditional long-term population monitoring is a difficult if not unaffordable task. Given its easily quantifiable nature, this study suggests that birdsong could become an early warning signal of populations in trouble.
Public Library of Science
More than 500 songbird species are globally threatened, most of them because of habitat loss and fragmentation in a variety of ecosystems and remote regions. In these conditions, traditional long-term population monitoring is a difficult if not unaffordable task. Given its easily quantifiable nature, this study suggests that birdsong could become an early warning signal of populations in trouble.
Public Library of Science
Songbird Current Events and Songbird News RSSTransgenic songbirds provide new tool to understand the brain
You can learn a lot from an animal. By manipulating the DNA of mice, flies, frogs and worms, scientists have discovered a great deal about the genes and molecules behind many of life's essential processes.
Scientists find a common link of bird flocks, breast milk and trust
What do flocks of birds have in common with trust, monogamy, and even breast milk?
Life and death in the living brain
Like clockwork, brain regions in many songbird species expand and shrink seasonally in response to hormones. Now, for the first time, University of Washington neurobiologists have interrupted this natural "annual remodeling" of the brain and have shown that there is a direct link between the death of old neurons and their replacement by newly born ones in a living vertebrate.
Researchers see evidence of memory in the songbird brain
When a zebra finch hears a new song from a member of its own species, the experience changes gene expression in its brain in unexpected ways, researchers report.
Why the swamp sparrow is hitting the high notes
Birdsongs are used extensively as models for animal signaling and human speech, offering a glimpse of how our own communicating abilities developed.
Beavers: Dam good for songbirds
The songbird has a friend in the beaver. According to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the busy beaver's signature dams provide critical habitat for a variety of migratory songbirds, particularly in the semi-arid interior of the West.
Singing to females makes male birds' brains happy
The melodious singing of birds has been long appreciated by humans, and has often been thought to reflect a particularly positive emotional state of the singer.
Is that song sexy or just so-so?
Why is your mate's rendition of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On" cute and sexy sometimes and so annoying at other times? A songbird study conducted by Emory University sheds new light on this question, showing that a change in hormone levels may alter the way we perceive social cues by altering a system of brain nuclei, common to all vertebrates, called the "social behavior network."
Birds communicate reproductive success in song
Some migratory songbirds figure out the best place to live by eavesdropping on the singing of others that successfully have had baby birds - a communication and behavioral trait so strong that researchers playing recorded songs induced them to nest in places they otherwise would have avoided.
Polluted prey causes wild birds to change their tune
Considerable attention has been paid to the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals in aquatic environments, but rather less attention has been given to routes of contamination on land.
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Songbird Fleetwood Mac (Primary Contributor) |
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Songbird by Lisa Samson (Author) In Lisa Samson's latest Christian fiction, the wife of a popular televangelist discovers a family secret that threatens to destroy her marriage--and her husband's ministry. Gospel singer Charmaine Hopewell has been searching for her mother since she was 11 years old, abandoned, and thrown into the foster care system. Now she is married to Harlan Hopewell, a beloved televangelist who has risen to popularity due to his disdain for psychology and psychiatry. Charmaine, despite their loving relationship, hides her own depression and search for meaning. Upon finding her mother in a mental institution, Charmaine realizes she must force Harlan into a decision: publicly support his wife and her needs or hide their new-found cross to ensure his rising popularity. Either way, Charmaine fears his... |
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