A community context for aggression? Multi-species audience effects on territorial aggression in two species of Paridae.

ABSTRACT: Territorial aggression in birds is widely observed and is commonly linked to sex, age, body size, physiology, seasonal cues, food resource, urbanization, and a variety of social contexts including conspecific audience effects. However, little is known about the heterospecific audience effects on territorial aggression.Here, we address an emerging idea that heterospecific audience effects may be pervasive influences in the social lives of free-living birds. We tested the hypothesis that the composition, number, and relative body size of heterospecific audiences observing an aggressive contest will influence the response probability and intensity of aggression displayed.We subjected two Paridae species, tufted titmouse (TUTI, Baeolophus bicolor) and Carolina chickadee (CACH, Poecil

SUBMITTER: Bai J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8131767 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature