Abstract
Most oscine bird species possess a repertoire of different song patterns, and repertoire size is thought to signal aspects of male quality. As age is assumed to be related to male quality in terms of experience and/or viability, repertoire size may be expected to reflect male age. Here, we investigated the relationship between repertoire size and age (yearlings or older) in Eurasian blackbirds, Turdus merula, a species with a large repertoire delivered in a highly variable manner. We found that older males tended to have larger repertoires than yearlings though the two age groups overlapped considerably. Thus, compared to other species with large repertoires, age-related differences in repertoire size seem rather small in male Eurasian blackbirds. We also compared repertoires of three individuals in two successive years (as yearlings and in the year following) and found a large element turnover. Our investigation revealed that this turnover was almost complete in the quiet terminating twitter part of the song. Such turnover may allow a young bird to adjust his repertoire to his neighbours' repertoires, which could be useful for song matching interactions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Acta Ethologica |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Pages (from-to) | 203-210 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISSN | 0873-9749 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2012 |
Keywords
- Turdus merula
- Blackbird
- Song
- Repertoire
- Age
- Male quality