Female song is structurally different from male song in Orchard Orioles, a temperate-breeding songbird with delayed plumage maturation

Michelle J Moyer,Evangeline M Rose,Karan J Odom,Aiman Raza,Bernard Lohr,Kevin E Omland,D'Juan A Moreland,Alexis L Scarselletta,Sean M Brown

doi:10.5751/jfo-00073-930103

Abstract

Moyer, M. J., E. M. Rose, D. A. Moreland, A. Raza, S. M. Brown, A. L. Scarselletta, B. Lohr, K. J. Odom, and K. E. Omland. 2022. Female song is structurally different from male song in Orchard Orioles, a temperate-breeding songbird with delayed plumage maturation. Journal of Field Ornithology 93(1):3. https://doi.org/10.5751/JFO-00073-930103

Highlights

We document the extensive use of female song in Orchard Orioles (Icterus spurius), a species with delayed plumage maturation where female song had not been well-documented
Based on observations of females singing in the early breeding season, we hypothesized that female song may function for mate attraction
Female songs were distinguishable by ear in the field, reinforcing these data

Summary

Introduction

Elaborate advertisement traits in animals have been assumed to have evolved as a result of sexual selection acting on males (Darwin 1871, Andersson and Iwasa 1996, Tobias et al 2011). There are, many examples of females displaying traits that are or even more elaborate than those of males across a wide variety of taxa (e.g., African starling plumage, Rubenstein and Lovette 2009; butterfly coloration, Oliver and Monteiro 2011; neotropical frog calls, Serrano and Penna 2018). The study of bird song has been dramatically impacted by this long-standing bias toward male traits. Most early prominent studies of bird song were conducted in the temperate regions of North America and Europe, and most often by male researchers, leading to geographic and sex biases in the field (Odom et al 2014, Haines et al 2020). In early editions of their widely cited book Bird Song, Catchpole and Slater (1995:10) defined songs as “long, complex vocalizations produced by males in the breeding season” (but see Journal of Field Ornithology 93(1): 3 https://journal.afonet.org/vol93/iss1/art3/

Methods

Results

Conclusion