Asymmetry in responsiveness to playback of geographic song variation after a recent range expansion

Birdsong variation among populations within species has been regarded as a possible precursor for variation between species and may play a role in speciation. However, acoustic variation between two populations of the same or different species can have a variable impact on mutual responsiveness, and we currently lack sufficient insight into the underlying reasons. We report here on geographic song variation and responsiveness to playback for the light-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis), a species with recent range expansion in China. We recorded songs in four historical populations in the south and six newly established populations in the north. We tested responsiveness in two southern and two northern locations to songs from southern and northern birds. Besides songs from the other distribution range (south to north and north to south), we used recordings for playback from local, nearby, and faraway dialects from within their own distribution range. We confirmed distinct dialectal dif..., We recorded songs in six northern populations: Beijing (BJ), Dalian (DL), Beidaihe (BDH), Xian (XA), Zhengzhou (ZZ), and Jinan (JN), and four southern populations: Nanchong (NC), Changsha (CS), Yaan (YA), and Wuhan (WH). We recorded the spontaneous songs (not playback-triggered) of 10 males from each population. All these songs were recorded during the early phase of the breeding season and were subsequently used to create playback stimuli. We conducted playback experiments from 9 April to 30 May during the early breeding seasons in both southern and northern populations.
We selected NC and CS for the southern populations and BJ and DL for the northern populations to test local responsiveness to geographic variation in song via playback experiments. We compared response strength to songs of the local population, a nearby and far-away population of the same region (historical source or recently expanded range), and a far-away population from t..., # Data from: Asymmetry in responsiveness to playback of geographic song variation after a recent range expansion

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.k3j9kd5pj](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k3j9kd5pj)

Paper Citation

Xing XY, Yang XJ, Xu XJ, Fu CJ, Song G, Lei FM, Slabbekoorn H. 2026. Asymmetry in responsiveness to playback of geographic song variation after a recent range expansion. *Behavioral Ecology*, *in press*.

Originators and contact information

Xiaoying Xing, e-mail: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Xiaojing Yang, e-mail: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Xiajuan Xu, e-mail: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Changjian Fu, e-mail: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Gang Song, e-mail: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Fumin Lei, e-mail: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]) 

Hans Slabbekoorn, e-mail: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]..., ,