Can Nocturnal Flight Calls of the Migrating Songbird, American Redstart, Encode Sexual Dimorphism and Individual Identity?

PLoS One. 2016 Jun 10;11(6):e0156578. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0156578. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Bird species often use flight calls to engage in social behavior, for instance maintain group cohesion and to signal individual identity, kin or social associations, or breeding status of the caller. Additional uses also exist, in particular among migrating songbirds for communication during nocturnal migration. However, our understanding of the information that these vocalizations convey is incomplete, especially in nocturnal scenarios. To examine whether information about signaler traits could be encoded in flight calls we quantified several acoustic characteristics from calls of a nocturnally migrating songbird, the American Redstart. We recorded calls from temporarily captured wild specimens during mist-netting at the Powdermill Avian Research Center in Rector, PA. We measured call similarity among and within individuals, genders, and age groups. Calls from the same individual were significantly more similar to one another than to the calls of other individuals, and calls were significantly more similar among individuals of the same sex than between sexes. Flight calls from hatching-year and after hatching-year individuals were not significantly different. Our results suggest that American Redstart flight calls may carry identifiers of gender and individual identity. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of individuality or sexual dimorphism in the flight calls of a migratory songbird. Furthermore, our results suggest that flight calls may have more explicit functions beyond simple group contact and cohesion. Nocturnal migration may require coordination among numerous individuals, and the use of flight calls to transmit information among intra- and conspecifics could be advantageous. Applying approaches that account for such individual and gender information may enable more advanced research using acoustic monitoring.

MeSH terms

  • Animal Migration / physiology*
  • Animals
  • Female
  • Flight, Animal / physiology*
  • Individuality*
  • Male
  • Sex Characteristics*
  • Songbirds / physiology*
  • Vocalization, Animal / physiology*

Grants and funding

This project was funded by multiple sources, including the National Science Foundation (IIS-1125098), Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program (05-245, 06-245, 07-245, and 10-245), and the Leon Levy Foundation. Private donations, such as the Kenneth L. Harder Trust, the Scott and Karen Harder Family, and several anonymous private donations to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology provided additional funding for this research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. That being said, though they had no active role, the Harder family's interest and enthusiasm in flight calls helped push this project forward. No additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript was undertaken.