Declining food availability alters vocal behavior of a nomadic finch

Social information (i.e., gathered from other individuals) can be an important information source for animal decision-making related to foraging and movement. For instance, social information in the form of acoustic cues can be used to locate food sources. The ability to accurately assess declines in food availability or quality in order to make movement decisions can also impact fitness. However, little is known about whether the acoustic cues produced by animals differ when food is in decline and could therefore be used as a source of information in this context. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a study on the effect of food availability on the vocal behavior of pine siskin (Spinus pinus). Pine siskins are gregarious, nomadic finches that feed on seeds that fluctuate irregularly and dramatically in abundance. We recorded and characterized the vocalizations of wild-caught birds in captivity under two experimental conditions: unlimited food and a 20% reduction in food availability...., , # Declining food availability alters vocal behavior of a nomadic finch

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.kh18932js](10.5061/dryad.kh18932js)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset includes activity, body mass, corticosterone, call count, and call frequency measurements collected from captive pine siskins experiencing unlimited food availability and restricted food availability, in a repeated measures experimental design.

### Files and variables

#### File: Tir\_Watts\_TypeC\_subsample\_fundamental.csv

**Description:** Data on the fundamental peak frequency of exemplar calls of type c

##### Variables

* Freq_Peak: Peak fundamental frequency of the call
* type: call type (‘cf’ indicates call type c and fundamental)
* Group: Experimental block (1, 2, 3)
* WhichFirst: Which treatment the bird experienced first (Control, Restriction)
* Treatment: Which treatment the bird experienced for this sample (Control, Restriction)
* Sex: M or F
* Hour: The hour of sampling (1,2,3,4...,