Singing Behavior and Song Structure in Northernand Southern House Wrens

EDNEI B DOS SANTOS; CHINTHAKA KALUTHOTA; PAULO. E. LLAMBIAS; DREW RENDALL

Anchorage

Congreso; 52nd Annual Conference of the Animal Behavior Society; 2015

Animal Behavior Society

House Wrens are broadly distributed across the Americas and show marked behavioral variation. Populations in 
the north-temperate zone are migratory, polygynous, and have large clutch sizes, while populations in the south-temperate zone are sedentary, socially monogamous, and have small clutch sizes. These are characteristics commonly hypothesized to influence the evolution of song organization and complexity. We analysed a large sample of 29,048 songs from 33 males in two populations, in Argentina (T. a. chilensis) and Canada (T. a. parkmanii), to provide a detailed comparison of song patterns as part of a broader effort to understand the evolution and function of song repertoires in House Wrens. We found clear differences in the detailed form of many individual notes and 
syllables; however, higher level patterns of song structure, organization, repertoire sizes and singing style were very similar. We consider implications for documented differences in life histories, mating 
behavior and migration between the two as well as for ongoing debates concerning the taxonomic status of different House Wren populations.