Vocal mimicry in male bowerbirds : who learns from whom?

Kelley, Laura A. and Healy, Susan D. 2010, Vocal mimicry in male bowerbirds : who learns from whom?, Biology letters, vol. 6, pp. 626-629.

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Title	Vocal mimicry in male bowerbirds : who learns from whom?
Author(s)	Kelley, Laura A. Healy, Susan D.
Journal name	Biology letters
Volume number	6
Start page	626
End page	629
Publisher	The Royal Society Publishing
Place of publication	London, England
Publication date	2010
ISSN	1744-9561 1744-957X
Keyword(s)	vocal mimicry geographical variation repertoire
Summary	Vocal mimicry is one of the more striking aspects of avian vocalization and is widespread across songbirds. However, little is known about how mimics acquire heterospecific and environmental sounds. We investigated geographical and individual variation in the mimetic repertoires of males of a proficient mimic, the spotted bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus maculatus. Male bower owners shared more of their mimetic repertoires with neighbouring bower owners than with more distant males. However, interbower distance did not explain variation in the highly repeatable renditions given by bower owners of two commonly mimicked species. From the similarity between model and mimic vocalizations and the patterns of repertoire sharing among males, we suggest that the bowerbirds are learning their mimetic repertoire from heterospecifics and not from each other.
Language	eng
Field of Research	060201 Behavioural Ecology
Socio Economic Objective	970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences
HERDC Research category	C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal
Copyright notice	©2010, The Royal Society
Persistent URL	http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30035808

Document type:	Journal Article
Collection:	School of Life and Environmental Sciences

Citation counts:	Cited 3 times in TR Web of Science Cited 3 times in Scopus
Access Statistics:	52 Abstract Views, 0 File Downloads - Detailed Statistics
Created:	Thu, 23 Jun 2011, 15:38:44 EST by Leanne Swaneveld

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