Heterosexual response to playback calls of the Leach's Storm-Petrel Oceanodroma leucorhoa.

Abstract

Four calls of the Leach's Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa), the Chatter-calls and Purr-calls of both sexes, were played back from a loudspeaker on the ground near the colony in Daikoku Island. All the playback calls attracted birds in flight and elicited Chatter-calls from them. The sex of the attracted birds were judged by analyzing the Chatter-calls. Significantly more birds responded to the playback call of the opposite sex than that of the same sex. It has already been revealed that birds inside burrows respond only to the playback calls of the same sex. Therefore, in this study it was found that the same call can elicit responses from different sexes in different circumstances. Thus, the same call c