Soft calls do not modulate aggressiveness in male common cuckoos toward conspecific territorial intruders: A sequential playback study

Csaba Moskát, Zoltán Elek, Márk E. Hauber

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In many bird species loud broadcast calls serve as aggressive signals with a large effective radius, whereas soft calls may indicate aggression at a closer distance, and are often directed at a nearby conspecific individual. Male common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) are famous for their simple cu-coo calls, which are long-range broadcast calls, uttered in long sequences during the breeding season. Cuckoos also produce soft calls, including a single gowk (wah), a series of gowks (gowk series), or a harsher single variant, the guo call. To our knowledge, no previous study has attempted to understand the function of cuckoos’ soft calls. We conducted a sequential playback experiment by (i) first attracting male cuckoos with “cu-coo” calls, and then (ii) playing heterospecific control calls or one of several types of cuckoo soft calls. While the “cu-coo” call attracted focal males, neither the soft conspecific calls nor the heterospecific control calls elicited an additional response. Finally, the gowk series calls did not alter cuckoos’ approach to the speaker when played together with “cu-coo” calls. As cuckoos’ soft calls did not increase or decrease aggression, they instead may advertise the cuckoo's presence and position for a nearby conspecific.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number104840
JournalBehavioural Processes
Volume206
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2023

Keywords

  • Acoustic signalling
  • Eurasian collared dove
  • Gowk calls
  • Guo calls
  • Playback
  • Short range communication

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Animal Science and Zoology
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

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