Contextual variations in calls of two non-oscine birds: the blue petrel and the Antarctic prion

Bird vocalizations are critical cues in social interactions as they convey temporary information varying with the social context, e.g. the signaler motivation when facing a rival or a potential mate. To date, literature mainly focuses on learning birds. Burrowing petrels (Procellariidae) are non-learning birds with a limited vocal repertoire. Bachelor males communicate with conspecifics with a single call emitted in three situations: in absence of a certain auditory (spontaneous calls), towards females (female-directed calls) and toward males (male-directed calls). We first hypothesized that, although the call structure is preserved, temporal and spectral parameters vary between the three call types of bachelor males, translating different motivations (Motivation Hypothesis). To go further, we hypothesized that acoustic variations in male-directed calls indicate the signaler’s aggressive motivation and therefore the variations are similar whether calls are produced by breeder or bachelo...

鸟类鸣唱是社交互动中的关键信号，其可传递随社交情境变化的即时信息，例如个体在面对竞争者或潜在配偶时的行为动机。截至目前，相关研究多聚焦于具备鸣唱学习能力的鸟类。掘穴鹱（Procellariidae，鹱科）属于无鸣唱学习能力的鸟类，其鸣唱曲目库十分有限。未繁殖雄性个体通过单一鸣唱与同种个体进行交流，该鸣唱存在三种发出场景：无特定听觉刺激时的自发鸣唱、针对雌性的定向鸣唱以及针对雄性的定向鸣唱。我们首先提出假说：尽管三类鸣唱的结构保持一致，但未繁殖雄性的三种鸣唱的时域与频谱参数存在差异，以此传递不同的行为动机（动机假说）。为进一步开展研究，我们又提出假说：针对雄性的定向鸣唱的声学差异可反映鸣唱者的攻击动机，因此无论鸣唱由繁殖个体还是未繁殖个体发出，其声学差异模式均相似……