Mobbing calls of Black-capped Chickadees: effects of urgency on call production.(Author Abstract): An article from: Wilson Bulletin
Book Details
Author(s)Myron C. Baker, April M. Becker
PublisherWilson Ornithological Society
ISBN / ASINB0008DSGVO
ISBN-13978B0008DSGV8
AvailabilityAvailable for download now
Sales Rank10,152,557
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
This digital document is an article from Wilson Bulletin, published by Wilson Ornithological Society on December 1, 2002. The length of the article is 4968 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
From the author: Many animals advertise the presence of a predator threat through vocal signals. Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapilla) use their chick-a-dee call as a mobbing call when encountering a perched hawk or owl. This social signal appears to serve as an alert to other chickadees, causing them to rally to the vicinity of the predator and join in a chorus of calling. We asked the question: do chickadees vary the mobbing call in a manner that could convey the immediacy of threat from a potential predator? We examined the responses of chickadees to a taxidermic mount of an avian predator presented at distances of 1 m and 6 m from each subject. Vocal responses were recorded and analyzed for response latency, calling rate, and syllable composition of calls. During 5-mm trials, the subjects responded more quickly and produced significantly more chick-a-dee calls for predator presentations at the 1-in distance than at the 6-in distance. Alterations of syllable composition of the call also were observed und er the two treatments. These results suggest that information about the immediacy of threat or proximity of a predator may be signaled by alteration of the rate of calling, with possible additional information contained in proportional changes in the different syllable types of the call. Studies of referential (symbolic) communication in birds and mammals often have failed to consider the problem of response urgency separately from predator-type labeling in vocal signal design.
Citation Details
Title: Mobbing calls of Black-capped Chickadees: effects of urgency on call production.(Author Abstract)
Author: Myron C. Baker
Publication:Wilson Bulletin (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2002
Publisher: Wilson Ornithological Society
Volume: 114 Issue: 4 Page: 510(7)
Article Type: Author Abstract
Distributed by Thomson Gale
From the author: Many animals advertise the presence of a predator threat through vocal signals. Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapilla) use their chick-a-dee call as a mobbing call when encountering a perched hawk or owl. This social signal appears to serve as an alert to other chickadees, causing them to rally to the vicinity of the predator and join in a chorus of calling. We asked the question: do chickadees vary the mobbing call in a manner that could convey the immediacy of threat from a potential predator? We examined the responses of chickadees to a taxidermic mount of an avian predator presented at distances of 1 m and 6 m from each subject. Vocal responses were recorded and analyzed for response latency, calling rate, and syllable composition of calls. During 5-mm trials, the subjects responded more quickly and produced significantly more chick-a-dee calls for predator presentations at the 1-in distance than at the 6-in distance. Alterations of syllable composition of the call also were observed und er the two treatments. These results suggest that information about the immediacy of threat or proximity of a predator may be signaled by alteration of the rate of calling, with possible additional information contained in proportional changes in the different syllable types of the call. Studies of referential (symbolic) communication in birds and mammals often have failed to consider the problem of response urgency separately from predator-type labeling in vocal signal design.
Citation Details
Title: Mobbing calls of Black-capped Chickadees: effects of urgency on call production.(Author Abstract)
Author: Myron C. Baker
Publication:Wilson Bulletin (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2002
Publisher: Wilson Ornithological Society
Volume: 114 Issue: 4 Page: 510(7)
Article Type: Author Abstract
Distributed by Thomson Gale
