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Does age matter in song bird vocal interactions? Results from interactive playback experiments

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in Zoology, November 2011
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Title
Does age matter in song bird vocal interactions? Results from interactive playback experiments
Published in
Frontiers in Zoology, November 2011
DOI 10.1186/1742-9994-8-29
Pubmed ID
Authors

Sarah Kiefer, Constance Scharff, Silke Kipper

Abstract

The song of oscines provides an extensively studied model of age-dependent behaviour changes. Male and female receivers might use song characteristics to obtain information about the age of a signaller, which is often related to its quality. Whereas most of the age-dependent song changes have been studied in solo singing, the role of age in vocal interactions is less well understood. We addressed this issue in a playback study with common nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos). Previous studies showed that male nightingales had smaller repertoires in their first year than older males and males adjusted their repertoire towards the most common songs in the breeding population. We now compared vocal interaction patterns in a playback study in 12 one year old and 12 older nightingales (cross-sectional approach). Five of these males were tested both in their first and second breeding season (longitudinal approach). Song duration and latency to respond did not differ between males of different ages in either approach. In the cross-sectional approach, one year old nightingales matched song types twice as often as did older birds. Similarly, in the longitudinal approach all except one bird reduced the number of song type matches in their second season. Individuals tended to overlap songs at higher rates in their second breeding season than in their first. The higher levels of song type matches in the first year and song overlapping by birds in their second year suggest that these are communicative strategies to establish relationships with competing males and/or choosy females.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 60 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Lithuania 1 2%
Portugal 1 2%
Denmark 1 2%
Germany 1 2%
Unknown 56 93%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 18 30%
Student > Bachelor 12 20%
Student > Master 10 17%
Researcher 4 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 5%
Other 7 12%
Unknown 6 10%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 34 57%
Environmental Science 7 12%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 5 8%
Arts and Humanities 2 3%
Neuroscience 2 3%
Other 4 7%
Unknown 6 10%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 January 2012.
All research outputs
#15,091,901
of 25,374,647 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Zoology
#473
of 695 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#96,383
of 155,018 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Zoology
#5
of 7 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,374,647 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 40th percentile – i.e., 40% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 695 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 21.0. This one is in the 31st percentile – i.e., 31% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 155,018 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 37th percentile – i.e., 37% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 7 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 2 of them.