A Birds Concerto: Greatest Hits of the

Avifauna
• Into the Woods: A Feathery Album
• Battle in the Sanctuary
• Homing in on Melodies
• The Genius of a Bird Brain
• Avian Vocal Mimicry: A Unified Conceptual Framework
• Echoes of Nature: Avian Sonation
 Homing in on Melodies

By: Lady Angela Robles

Outline

A. Ecological drivers of song diversification

1. Sensory drive
2. magic traits
B. Relative roles of sensory drive and magic traits
C. Vocalization of birds on their ecology
1.Habitat
2.Climate
3.Amount of light
Ecological drivers of song diversification

• Bird song is a sexual trait important in bird communication and

known to be shaped by environmental selection.

• Once relatively straightforward, now complex.

• Ecological diversity drives evolution of bird signals in two ways:

• Sensory drive

• Magic traits
Ecological drivers of song diversification

• Sensory drive
• Divergence of bird
signals due to
differences in the
transmission properties
of habitats as a result of
direct habitat-dependent
selection for effective
signal transmission.
Ecological drivers of mating signals

• Magic traits
• Causes divergence in traits related to signal production and
modification.
 Relative roles of sensory drive and
magic traits
• Seddon, 2005
• ✔️ direct and indirect selection have a role in song evolution.
• ✖️ species-level phylogeny
• Mason et al, 2017
• Body size > habitat
 Relative roles of sensory drive and
magic traits
• Derryberry et al. 2017
• Variation  direct selection + indirect selection

• Indirect selection is the primary force shaping spectral features of

song,

• whereas both direct and indirect selection act on song tempo and
performance.
Vocalization of birds on their ecology
1. Habitat
• Bird song can be absorbed and or reflected by physical objects,
even by such tenuous physical objects as wind.

• The range of frequencies of a bird’s call varies with the habitat

and the ambient noise.

• For birds, lower frequencies travels the farthest,

• whereas higher frequencies have a great tendency to be

scattered.
 Vocalization of birds on their ecology
2. Climate
• Climate change has resulted to
warmer and humid conditions in
some places.

• Changes could come in a number of

ways:

1. For lower frequency - sound

absorption, temperature;
reverse for high frequency.
Vocalization of birds on their ecology

2. Air temperature affects high frequencies of bird calls.

3. Precipitation affects sound propagation; humidity affects

sound absorption.

4. Climate change may indirectly affect vocal communication

through its effects on vegetation.
Vocalization of birds on their ecology
3. Amount of light
• Light pollution is often associated with changes in biological
rhythms.

• Da Silva et al. 2015 studied the dusk and dawn vocalizations of

six male songbird species.
Vocalization of birds on their ecology
3. Amount of light
• Correa et al. 2016 found out that anthropogenic noise and not
artificial light levels predicted song behavior of some equatorial
birds.

• This result implies that some birds may be less sensitive to

variations in day length and thus less sensitive to light pollution.