Signaler And Receiver Coordination And The Timing Of Communication In Amazonian Birds

Main Category: Veterinary
Also Included In: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 02 Oct 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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To communicate efficiently, animals must produce signals that are obvious to intended receivers in their environment. Signals, such as bird songs, are predicted to evolve to minimize confusion with background sound, such as other species' signals, to avoid errors in communication.

The present study is the first to experimentally test the hypothesis that co-occurring bird species both sing and listen at distinct times during the dawn chorus in order to avoid acoustic interference from other species.

The results confirm that species partition the sound environment both in signal production and response to minimize signal confusion in species-rich environments.

Royal Society journal Biology Letters

Biology Letters publishes short, innovative and cutting-edge research articles and opinion pieces accessible to scientists from across the biological sciences. The journal is characterised by stringent peer-review, rapid publication and broad dissemination of succinct high-quality research communications.

Biology Letters