Degradation of song in a species using nesting holes: the Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca.
The habitat, but also the nest hole of a hole-nesting species, will degrade the song during transmission. We investigated how the sounds degrade in a sound transmission experiment with the song of the Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca (Muscicapidae). Ten different song elements were transmitted to microphones placed inside and outside a nest box. On average, song degradation was much greater inside than outside the nest boxes, especially with respect to excess attenuation and blurring of the song elements. Being inside a nest box therefore strongly reduces a Pied Flycatcher's possibility of detecting and recognizing songs or eavesdropping on singing interactions.
Lampe
Helene M
HM
Department of Biology, Div. of Zoology, University of Oslo, Oslo, N-0316, Norway. h.m.lampe@bio.uni.no
Dabelsteen
Torben
T
Larsen
Ole N
ON
Pedersen
Simon B
SB
D000162:Acoustics; D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009425:Nesting Behavior; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*