Singing in the rain forest: how a tropical bird song transfers information.

ABSTRACT: How information transmission processes between individuals are shaped by natural selection is a key question for the understanding of the evolution of acoustic communication systems. Environmental acoustics predict that signal structure will differ depending on general features of the habitat. Social features, like individual spacing and mating behavior, may also be important for the design of communication. Here we present the first experimental study investigating how a tropical rainforest bird, the white-browed warbler Basileuterus leucoblepharus, extracts various information from a received song: species-specific identity, individual identity and location of the sender. Species-specific information is encoded in a resistant acoustic feature and is thus a public signal helping males to

SUBMITTER: Mathevon N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2216701 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature