Data from: The effects of age on vocal mimicry in female superb lyrebirds

The study of vocal mimicry in birds has been largely dominated by
male-focused sexual selection theory. Despite this, females of many
species demonstrate remarkable mimetic abilities that cannot be explained
by these conventional male-centric frameworks. We analysed vocal
recordings from nesting female superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae)
to examine age-related patterns in mimetic behaviour during a female
specific ecological context: nest defence. Our dataset includes
annotations from the 10-minute recordings from individual females of known
age, with a subset of six females recorded across multiple years. We
classified vocal elements into three categories: mimicry of heterospecific
sounds, conspecific vocalisations, and ambiguous elements which were
assumed to be mimicry production errors. For mimetic elements, we
identified the model species and sound type and categorised models as
predators versus non-predators. We constructed repertoire accumulation
curves to validate our 10-minute sampling protocol. We used linear mixed
models (LMM) and generalised linear mixed models (GLMM) to analyse
relationships between female age and various aspects of vocal behaviour,
including total element production, mimetic diversity, time spent
vocalising, and predator mimicry proportions. Additional analyses examined
potential confounding factors including testing for habituation and the
effects of time of breeding. Our data reveals high individual variation in
mimetic behaviour, with no age effects on overall mimicry propensity or
diversity. However, older females are more likely to mimic predators
during nest defence than younger females.  There are two main
implications of these findings. First, age-related factors are unlikely to
account for individual variation in female mimetic repertoires. Second,
females may refine their vocal mimicry with age, selectively retaining
models that offer the greatest defensive advantage during nest defence.

# **Read Me** Paper title: The effect of age on vocal mimicry in female
superb lyrebirds Submitted Journal: Avian Biology DOI 10.1002/jav.03520
About: This file pertains to the data associated with the above
paper.  The master data for this project is
“song_2025_final.csv”. All data and analysis derives from these data Due
to the length of code, there are five separate R files with analysis code.
They and the associated data are labelled as follows: 1\. File One_The
effect of age on vocal mimicry in female superb lyrebirds_female quality:
data = 2025_Banding exposure summary data_final.csv 2\. File two_The
effect of age on vocal mimicry in female superb lyrebirds_Repertoire
accumulation curve: data = FSB_mim_final 3\. File three_The effect of age
on vocal mimicry in female superb lyrebirds_Predators: data =
song_2025_final.csv 4\. File four_The effect of age on mimicry in female
superb lyrebirds_Mimicry and age: data = three_element_count_final.csv 5\.
File five_The effect of age on vocal mimicry in female superb
lyrebirds_Time singing and element duration: data = song_2025_final.csv
### Data structure “song_2025_final.csv” Each line corresponds to a single
element that was measured. Quality of recordings was not sufficient to
measure accuracy of mimicry. * bird.id (colour bands) = unique colour code
of bands of individual birds. Each capital letter corresponds to a unique
colour using the first letter of that colour. Lower case letters further
differentiate between colours e.g., Dg = Dark green (See end of read me
file for complete list) * bird.age (years) = age of birds at time of
recording in years * year.recorded = the calendar year the recording was
taken * Begin.Time..s.: begin time of element in seconds * End.Time..s.:
end time of element in seconds * Begin.File: Recording name for which data
is derived * Delta.Time..s.: Delta time in seconds * Dur.90…s.: 90% of the
duration of an element in seconds * vocalisation = the vocalisation type,
either “l” for lyrebird or “m” for mimicry * vocalisation_three_categories
= the vocalisation type broken down further into three categories, either
conspecific, mimicry or ambiguous * mimicry.id = the species being
mimicked. Where NA is present, no species is recorded e.g., corresponds
with conspecific vocals * call.type = the category of vocalisation e.g.,
one species may have multiple call types such magpie A, magpie B etc.
“Unknown” means the vocalisation could not be identified. * confidence =
confidence in ID of mimicry, “c” = confident, “nc” = non confident and
translates to ambiguous elements * vocal.type = simplified version of call
type e.g., all lyrebird vocalisations are listed as lyrebird instead of
subcategories * predator_non predator = category of mimicked model as
either a predator (p) or non predator (n) (converted to 0 and 1 in r).
Blank spaces in this column correspond to conspecific vocalisations
meaning they were not categorised ### Data structure “FSB_mim_final.csv”
each line corresponds to a single element that was measured * Selection:
spectrogram selection number * Begin.Time..s.: begin time of element in
seconds * End.Time..s.: end time of element in seconds * Low.Freq..Hz:
lowest frequency measurement of the element in Hz * High.Freq..Hz.:
highest frequency measurement of the element in Hz * Begin.File: Recording
name for which data is derived * Species: the species mimicked *
Vocalisation: the type of vocalisation mimicked e.g.,  one
species may have multiple call types such magpie A, magpie B etc * bird.id
(colour bands) = unique colour band code of individual birds. Each capital
letter corresponds to a unique colour using the first letter of that
colour. Lower case letters further differentiate between colours e.g., Dg
= Dark green (See end of read me file for complete list) ### Data
structure “2025_Banding exposure summary data_final.csv” each line
corresponds to a single banding/recording event for each female * bird.id
(colour bands) = unique colour band code of individual birds. Each capital
letter corresponds to a unique colour using the first letter of that
colour. Lower case letters further differentiate between colours e.g., Dg
= Dark green (See end of read me file for complete list) * bird.age
(years) = age of birds at time of recording in years * year.recorded = the
calendar year the female’s chick was banded and recorded * Length
(seconds) = total time spent vocalising in recording in seconds (based on
element length) * Total.Sound.duration (seconds) = total time spent
mimicking in recording in seconds (based on element length) * Ave.duration
(seconds) = average duration of each individual element of mimicry in
seconds * banded = whether the bird had experienced banding of chick
before - y = yes, n = no * num.species.mim = number of species mimicked *
call.diversity = number of different kinds of mimetic elements e.g., a
female may mimic multiple calls from one species e.g., magpie A and magpie
B * chicks.banded = number of chicks the female had had banded in her
lifetime (1 corresponds with “n” in the “banded” column) * julian.day =
year and day of the year that the chick was banded (proxy for chick age as
all chicks were banded at approximately the same time) * julian.singular =
Julian date just by day of year (proxy for chick age as all chicks were
banded at approximately the same time) ### Data structure
“three_element_count_final.csv” * three.categories = the vocalisation type
broken down further into three categories, either conspecific, mimicry or
ambiguous * bird.age (years) = age of birds at time of recording in years
* bird.id (colour bands)= unique colour band code of individual birds.
Each capital letter corresponds to a unique colour using the first letter
of that colour. Lower case letters further differentiate between colours
e.g., Dg = Dark green (See end of read me file for complete list *
year.recorded =  the calendar year the recording was taken *
elementcount = a count of the number of elements produced for each
category (corresponding to the three.categories column) **Notes** Where NA
is present, no species is recorded e.g., corresponds with conspecific
vocals Where columns are blank, no data is recorded Bird ID: colour bands
labels for each individual female * BWW = Blue White White * DgBR = Dark
green, Blue, Red * DgDgY = Dark green, Dark green, Yellow * DgWW = Dark
green, White, White * DgYDg = Dark green, Yellow, Dark green * DgYR = Dark
green, Yellow, Red * GGW = Green, Green, White * LbYLb = Light blue,
Yellow, Light blue * RRR = Red, Red, Red * RYDg = Red, Yellow, Dark green
* YYY = Yellow, Yellow, Yellow * YBB = Yellow, Blue, Blue * YBR = Yellow,
Blue, Red * YbYLb = Yellow brown, Yellow, Light blue * YDgB = Yellow, Dark
green, Blue * YYR = Yellow, Yellow, Red