Vocal Behaviour and Vocal Divergence in Mesoamerican Melozone Ground-Sparrows

University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 2014 Acoustic communication in thicket habitats: Vocal behaviour and vocal divergence in mesoamerican Melozone ground-sparrows Luis Andres Sandoval Vargas University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Sandoval Vargas, Luis Andres, "Acoustic communication in thicket habitats: Vocal behaviour and vocal divergence in mesoamerican Melozone ground-sparrows" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5107. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/5107 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). 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ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION IN THICKET HABITATS: VOCAL BEHAVIOUR AND VOCAL DIVERGENCE IN MESOAMERICAN MELOZONE GROUND-SPARROWS by LUIS ANDRÉS SANDOVAL VARGAS A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies through the Department of Biological Science in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada © 2014 Luis Andrés Sandoval Vargas i Acoustic communication in thicket habitats: vocal behaviour and vocal divergence in Mesoamerican Melozone ground-sparrows by Luis Andrés Sandoval Vargas APPROVED BY: ______________________________________________ T. Wright, External Examiner New Mexico State University ______________________________________________ D. Heath GLIER ______________________________________________ S. Doucet Department of Biological Sciences ______________________________________________ O. Love Department of Biological Sciences ______________________________________________ D. Mennill, Advisor Department of Biological Sciences April 10, 2014 ii Declaration of Co-Authorship / Previous Publication I. Co-Authorship Declaration I declare that this thesis incorporates material that is the result of joint research, as follows: I am the sole author of the General Introduction, Chapter 1, and the General Discussion, Chapter 8. I am the principle author of the manuscripts that comprise the six data chapters: Chapters 2 through 7. All six data chapters are co-authored with my supervisor, Dr. Daniel Mennill. Chapters 1, 5, and 6 are co-authored with my field collaborator Carolina Méndez. Chapter 4 is co-authored with Dr. Torben Dabelsteen. Chapter 7 is co-authored with Dr. Stéphanie Doucet and Pierre-Paul Bitton. In all six instances, the key ideas are mine, and the experimental design, experimental execution, data analysis, interpretation, and writing were performed primarily by me. Dr. Daniel Mennill contributed to experimental design, data analysis, interpretation, and the writing and editing of the manuscripts, as well as providing financial and logistical support for the research described in all six data chapters. My others collaborators contributed to the experimental design, data interpretation, and/or writing and editing of the manuscripts. I am aware of the University of Windsor Senate Policy on Authorship and I certify that I have properly acknowledged the contribution of other researchers to my thesis, and have obtained written permission from my co-authors to include the above material in my thesis. I certify that, with the above qualification, this thesis, and the research to which it refers, is the product of my own work. Chapters 5 and 6 are published in the journals Ethology and Animal Behaviour, respectively, and are formatted for those journals. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 7 are written in manuscript format for future submission. iii II. Declaration of Previous Publication This thesis includes two original papers that have been published in peer reviewed journals, as follows: Thesis Chapter Publication title/full citation Publication status Chapter 5 Individual distinctiveness in the fine structural Published in Ethology features and repertoire characteristics of the songs of White-eared Ground-sparrows Chapter 6 Different vocal signals, but not prior experience, Published in Animal influence heterospecific from conspecific Behaviour discrimination I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include the above published material(s) in my thesis. I certify that the above material describes work completed during my registration as graduate student at the University of Windsor. I declare that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. Furthermore, to the extent that I have included copyrighted material that surpasses the bounds of fair dealing within the meaning of the Canada Copyright Act, I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include such material(s) in my thesis. I declare that this is a true copy of my thesis, including any final revisions, as approved by my thesis committee and the Graduate Studies office, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. iv Abstract Acoustic communication is a critical component of social interactions in birds. There are relatively few quantitative studies of the vocal behaviour of tropical bird species, in spite of the rich avian biodiversity in the tropics and the extensive variety of vocalizations they produce. This lack of information inhibits our ability to understand the behaviour and ecology of tropical birds, and impairs our ability to perform comparative analyses from an evolutionary perspective. In this dissertation, I study the vocalizations of three species of tropical ground-sparrow: Melozone biarcuata (Prevost’s Ground-sparrow), Melozone kieneri (Rusty-crowned Ground-sparrow), and Melozone leucotis (White-eared Ground-sparrow). I provide the first description of the vocalizations of each species, and demonstrate that all three ground-sparrows produce three main categories of vocalizations: calls, solo songs, and duets. I present results of a sound transmission experiment where I broadcast and re-recorded solo songs and duets through thicket habitats. I found that both vocalizations show similar patterns of degradation and attenuation with distance, suggesting that they facilitate communication with receivers at similar distances. I evaluate individual distinctiveness in the songs of male White-eared Ground- sparrows and the persistence of distinctive characteristics over time. I found that male White- eared Ground-sparrows sing individually distinctive songs. Uniquely, I found the frequency with which males sing different song types is also individually distinctive, and this feature varies little between recording sessions. I present results of a playback experiment to evaluate whether White-eared Ground-sparrows use calls, solo songs, and duets to discriminate conspecific from heterospecific competitors. I show that ground-sparrows display more intense responses to conspecific vocalizations than congeneric vocalizations, suggesting that they discriminate competitors from non-competitor species. Finally, I provide analyses of the morphology, v plumage patterns, colour reflectance, male solo songs, and calls of individuals from northern and southern subspecies of Melozone biarcuata. My data show that the southern subspecies exhibits substantial phenotypic differences, on par with other subspecies complexes where species status has been recognized. I argue that M. b. cabanisi should be treated as a species separate from M. biarcuata (Prevost’s Ground-Sparrow) and propose that it be called Cabanis’ Ground- Sparrow (Melozone cabanisi). vi Acknowledgements I thank my supervisor Dr. Daniel J. Mennill for his support and assistance in conducting my dissertation research. His guidance taught me important skills as a successful investigator. I thank my Ph.D. committee members for their time and valuable comments during the development of my research: Dr. Stéphanie Doucet, Dr. Daniel Heath, and Dr. Oliver Love. I thank Dr. Tim Wright for agreeing to serve as the external examiner for my defence. I thank my collaborators on the projects in the data chapters of this dissertation who helped make these studies possible: Dr. Torben Dabelsteen, Dr. Stéphanie Doucet, and Pierre-Paul Bitton. I thank Carolina Méndez, Olman Sandoval, Sharon Sandoval, Melania Fernández, and Sandra Gallo for assistance in the field, inside and outside of Costa Rica; their effort helping me to obtain the recordings and experimental data made this research possible. I thank Greg Budney and the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds, Laboratorio de Bioacústica

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