How Songbird Females Sample Male Song: Communication Networks and Mate Choice

Abstract

The behavioural decisions animals take directly influence their fitness and thus have a fundamental impact on evolutionary processes. In many animals, acoustic signals play an important role in social decisions with mate choice being among the most apparent ones. Male bird song has played a key role along this line, yet the understanding of how female birds use song to prospect, assess and choose mates in their natural environment is surprisingly limited. A main reason for this limited understanding is that it is very difficult to follow a female during her prospecting and decision process and quantify her experience with different males before she makes a final decision. Here we integrate insights from communication networks, male song traits and female prospecting behaviour to stimulate a more integrative approach on the role of signalling in behavioural and reproductive decisions.