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| Adelaide’s Warblers Increase Vocal Performance in Territorial Interactions |
| Juleyska Vazquez-Cardona, Peter C. Mower, Samantha Krause, David Logue. University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada |
Vocal performance is the ability to approach a physiological limitation when singing. Songbirds may modify vocal performance in territorial interactions to signal their condition or motivation. We used an observational study and a playback experiment to test whether male Adelaide’s warblers (Setophaga adelaidae) modify three different measures of vocal performance during real and simulated territorial interactions. The observational study revealed that males increase two of the three performance measures around the time of agonistic encounters with other males. The playback study showed that male Adelaide’s warblers sing with higher vocal performance in response to male song compared to the control stimulus. In both studies, a reduction in the duration of silent gaps between notes explains much of the improvement in performance. Overall, this study indicates that male Adelaide’s warblers increase vocal performance by shortening the silent gaps between notes during agonistic encounters with other males. |