SONG PLASTICITY BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE BREEDING SEASONS IN THE SAFFRON FINCH (Sicalis flaveola pelzelni)

MASSONI, VIVIANA; BENITEZ SALDIVAR, MARIA JULIANA

Puerto Iguazú

Conferencia; Ornithological Congress of the Americas; 2017

Association of Field Ornithologists, Sociedade Brasileira de Ornitologia y Aves Argentinas

Song development comprises at least one sensitive phase of vocal learning, memorization and rehearsal with overproduction of song components followed by attrition of some of them. We studied the vocalizations of the Saffron Finch Sicalis flaveola pelzelni, a Thraupidae that presents delayed plumage maturation. We performed a longitudinal analysis to compare the songs of immature plumaged second year males (SY) with the songs performed by those same individuals as adult plumaged after-second-year males (ASY) on the following year. We sought to evaluate if there are structural, temporal or frequency-related changes associated to their age and coloration. We analyzed 2079 songs from eight males (SY = 135 ± 23, ASY = 117 ± 15, mean ± SE songs/individual), to evaluate the following variables: song duration, song minimum and maximum frequency, peak frequency, song interval, mean syllable duration, syllables per song, syllables per second, syllable types per song and syllable repertoire. SY males had larger interval between songs and larger mean syllable duration than ASY males (paired t-test = 2.62 y 2.63 respectively, df = 7, p < 0.05); syllable repertoire change was variable among these males between successive years. Even though males repeated syllables from their first year into their second, they also included new syllables and omitted others. Further longitudinal analyses in ASY males may unveil if the song plasticity found continues to occur after plumage maturation, while a comparison of syllable repertoire between neighbors may determine if these changes are related to song sharing between territorial males.