Territory defence in tropical birds: are females as aggressive as males?

Abstract

Much of our knowledge concerning the functions of territorial behaviour and how territories are defended by individuals comes from research on birds. The vast majority of this work has focused on temperate zone breeding territoriality in which territories are defended most obviously by males. Our understanding of the female role in territory defence is limited because they are less conspicuous and much harder to observe. We studied sex roles in territory maintenance and defence in a duetting, resident neotropical passerine, the white-bellied antbird (Myrmeciza longipes). This species maintains territories and pair bonds year round and both sexes sing and actively participate in territory defence. We performed a series of playback experiments throughout the dry (non-breeding) and wet (breeding) seasons. We exposed territorial pairs to three types of stimuli including: (1) single sex, male only songs, (2) single sex, female only songs, and (3) both sex songs/duets. Contrary to findings for most other tropical species, individuals defended their territories with equal levels of aggression regardless of stimuli. Furthermore, sex roles were very different, with males responding more aggressively than females to all stimuli throughout both seasons. Both males and females consistently responded more aggressively to territorial intrusions during the dry season than during the wet season, likely because food abundance is low in the dry season and territory value is high. Our analysis of duetting behaviour suggests that duets do not serve a significant role in mate guarding, or territory defence.