title: Neotropical wrens learn new duet rules as adults.
abstract: Although song development in songbirds has been much studied as an analogue of language development in humans, the development of vocal interaction rules has been relatively neglected in both groups. Duetting avian species provide an ideal model to address the acquisition of interaction rules as duet structure involves time and pattern-specific relationships among the vocalizations from different individuals. In this study, we address the development of the most striking properties of duets: the specific answering rules that individuals use to link their own phrase types to those of their partners (duet codes) and precise temporal coordination. By performing two removal experiments in canebrake wrens (Cantorchilus zeledoni), we show that individuals use a fixed phrase repertoire to create new phrase pairings when they acquire a new partner. Furthermore, immediately after pairing, individuals perform duets with poor coordination and poor duet code adherence, but both aspects improve with time. These results indicate that individuals need a learning period to be able to perform well-coordinated duets that follow a consistent duet code. We conclude that both duet coordination and duet code adherence are honest indicators of pair-bond duration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA krivera@bio.miami.edu.
authors.forename: Karla D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Rivera-Cáceres
authors.affiliation: School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.
authors.forename: Esmeralda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Quirós-Guerrero
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Bioacústica, Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Sede Rodrigo Facio, San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica.|Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Araya-Salas
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA.
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Searcy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D007858:Learning; D010152:Pair Bond; D020308:Songbirds / Q000502:physiology*; D014828:Vocalization, Animal
keywords: canebrake wren; duet code; duet coordination; duet ontogeny; song learning