Song sharing and singing strategies in the winter wren Troglodytes troglodytes

Abstract

The winter wren is a common forest bird living in groups of few adjacent neighbours during the breeding season. Inside each group, males vocally interact in the context of both territorial holding and sexual competition, forming a complex communication network. To study this network, we first analysed song type and syllable repertoires within and between distinct groups. We found a limited number of song types highly stereotyped in length, syntax and syllable composition, frequently shared among neighbours. Between groups, song type and syllable repertoires sharing decreased with increasing distance at a higher rate for song types than for syllables. Then, with continuous recordings, we focused on the dynamics of acoustic interactions between neighbours. We showed that male winter wrens can differentially use their song type repertoire (non-matching strategy), overlap their neighbours and modulate their singing rhythm producing longer inter-song intervals with no change in song length during acoustic interactions.