A comparative analysis of song amplitude across and within bird species

Animals use acoustic signals to exchange information essential to their survival and reproduction. A crucial parameter in acoustic communication is the amplitude of the signal, as it plays a decisive role in signal transmission and can also encode information. However, signal amplitude has been largely neglected in animal communication studies because it is difficult to assess. We measured song amplitudes in 17 European songbird species (Passeriformes) in the field and investigated the sources of variation between and within species. We found that song amplitude increased with increasing background noise (Lombard effect), in the presence of singing rival males, and it varied with the time of day. These findings highlight that birds can adjust how loud they sing in response to changes in the biotic and abiotic environment. However, our phylogenetically informed analysis found no support for the long-standing hypotheses that song amplitude reflects body size or territory size across bird ..., , # A comparative analysis of song amplitude across and within bird species

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.cnp5hqchb](10.5061/dryad.cnp5hqchb)

## Description of the data and file structure

This readme.txt file was generated on 2024-07-17 by Léna de Framond

Author Information:

Name: Brumm, Henrik
Institution: Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Animal Communication & Urban Ecology Group
Email: [e-mail]

Name: De Framond, Eric
Institution: Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Animal Communication & Urban Ecology Group
Email: [e-mail]

Name: Kikodze, Ekaterine
Institution: Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Animal Communication & Urban Ecology Group
Email: [e-mail]

Name: De Framond, Léna
Institution: Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Animal Communication & Urban Ecology Group
Email: [e-mail]

Date of data collection: 2010-2023

### Files and variables

#### File: SongAmpl...,