Nocturnal playback experiments: The response of two European species of birds to singing of foreign male at night.

Recent studies have shown that nocturnal singing in diurnal birds is a common phenomenon, however, the understanding of the mechanisms, functions and consequences of this behaviour has been lacking. We focused on the night singing of two diurnal songbirds-the yellowhammer and the common chaffinch that are widely distributed in Europe. We conducted day and night playback experiments, during which we broadcast songs of an unfamiliar male to the territory holder at two different stages of the breeding season, to examine whether the night singing in species which normally do not sing at night elicits responses from their conspecifics.

The Influence of Flame Exposure and Solid Particle Erosion on Tensile Strength of CFRP Substrate with Manufactured Protective Coating.

This paper presents the results of laboratory tests for new materials made of a carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite with a single-sided protective coating. The protective coatings were made of five different powders-AlO, aluminium, quartz sand, crystalline silica and copper-laminated in a single process during curing of the prepreg substrate with an epoxy matrix. The specimens were subjected to flame exposure and solid particle erosion tests, followed by uniaxial tensile tests.

Neighbour-stranger discrimination in an African wood dove inhabiting equatorial rainforest.

We investigated within- and between-individual song variation and song-based neighbour-stranger discrimination in a non-learning bird species, the blue-headed wood-dove (Turtur brehmeri), which inhabits lowland rainforests of West and Central Africa. We found that songs of this species are individually specific and have a high potential for use in individual recognition based on the time-frequency pattern of note distribution within song phrases. To test whether these differences affect behaviour, we conducted playback experiments with 19 territorial males.

Ecological filtering shapes the impacts of agricultural deforestation on biodiversity.

The biodiversity impacts of agricultural deforestation vary widely across regions. Previous efforts to explain this variation have focused exclusively on the landscape features and management regimes of agricultural systems, neglecting the potentially critical role of ecological filtering in shaping deforestation tolerance of extant species assemblages at large geographical scales via selection for functional traits. Here we provide a large-scale test of this role using a global database of species abundance ratios between matched agricultural and native forest sites that comprises 71 avian assemblages reported in 44 primary studies, and a companion database of 10 functional traits for all 2,647 species involved.

Competition for acoustic space in a temperate-forest bird community.

Animals that communicate by acoustic signaling share a common acoustic environment. Birds are particularly vocal examples, using a wide repertoire of broadcast signals for mate attraction and territorial defense. However, interference caused by sounds that overlap in frequency and time can disrupt signal detection and reduce reproductive success.

Response of forest Turtur doves to conspecific and congeneric songs in sympatry and allopatry.

Birds have a diverse acoustic communication system, and the ability to recognise their own species' song from a distance facilitates complex behaviours related to mate attraction and rival deterrence. However, certain species, including doves, do not learn songs and their vocal repertoires are much simpler than those of better-studied songbirds. In these so-called non-learning birds, relatively little is known about the role that bird song plays in intra- and interspecific interactions, and how such behaviours might be acquired (inherited or learned from experience).

Females occasionally create duets with males but they never sing solo-year-round singing behaviour in an Afrotropical songbird.

Our knowledge of birdsong mainly comes from studies focused on male songs produced in a short breeding period, even though we know that sedentary species sing year-round, female song is quite widespread and many species sing collectively creating duets and choruses. In this study we focused on daily and seasonal changes in singing activity of an endemic, sedentary, duetting, Afrotropical songbird-the Bangwa forest warbler. We collected soundscape recordings in six recording locations and used singing activity index to examine how vocal activity of males and females varies daily and seasonally and how it correlates with the rainfall.

Acoustic approach as an alternative to human-based survey in bird biodiversity monitoring in agricultural meadows.

Acoustic monitoring has been tested as an alternative to the traditional, human-based approach of surveying birds, however studies examining the effectiveness of different acoustic methods sometimes yield inconsistent results. In this study we examined whether bird biodiversity estimated by traditional surveys of birds differs to that obtained through soundscape surveys in meadow habitats that are of special agricultural importance, and whether acoustic monitoring can deliver reliable indicators of meadows and farmland bird biodiversity. We recorded soundscape and simultaneously surveyed birds by highly skilled human-observers within a fixed (50 m and 100 m) and unlimited radius using the point-count method twice in the breeding season at 74 recording sites located in meadows, in order to compare differences in (1) bird biodiversity estimation of meadow, farmland, songbird, and all bird species and (2) the detection rate of single bird species by these two methods.

Structure and functions of Yellow-breasted Boubou () solos and duets.

Background: Birds have extremely well-developed acoustic communication and have become popular in bioacoustics research. The majority of studies on bird song have been conducted in the temperate zones where usually males of birds sing to attract females and defend territories. In over 360 bird species mostly inhabiting the tropics both males and females sing together in duets.

Bird species detection by an observer and an autonomous sound recorder in two different environments: Forest and farmland.

Birds are commonly used as bio-indicators of the quality of environments and the changes to them. Therefore, ecologists put a lot of effort into the monitoring of their population trends. One of the methods used for bird population monitoring is autonomous sound recording.

Vocal individuality in drumming in great spotted woodpecker-A biological perspective and implications for conservation.

Animals-including conservation biologists-use acoustic signals to recognise and track individuals. The majority of research on this phenomenon has focused on sounds generated by vocal organs (e.g.

Individually specific call feature is not used to neighbour-stranger discrimination: the corncrake case.

In various contexts, animals rely on acoustic signals to differentiate between conspecifics. Currently, studies examining vocal signatures use two main approaches. In the first approach, researchers search for acoustic characteristics that have the potential to be individual specific.

Functionally similar acoustic signals in the corncrake (Crex crex) transmit information about different states of the sender during aggressive interactions.

We combined playback experiments with hormonal manipulations to study the information content of acoustic signals during aggressive interactions between male corncrakes. During territorial conflicts, fights are uncommon, but the intensity of signaling usually increases. Such signals can be temporally and contextually associated with many aggressive behaviors and most likely function as threats or as indicators of the sender's quality or motivation.