Song of Cistothorus platensis (Grass Wren) in a Resident South Temperate Population from Mendoza, Argentina

RENDALL, DREW; LLAMBÍAS, PAULO EMILIO; PANASITI ROS, ROSARIO; GARRIDO CORIA, PAULA SABRINA; GARCÍA, NATALIA CRISTINA

Conferencia; Northeast Natural History Conference and Annual Meetings of the Wilson Ornithological Society, and the Association of Field Ornithologists; 2021

Abstract - The study of geographic variation in birdsong provides insights into vocal evolution. Despite longstanding interest in the role of song to understand the evolution of communication signals, baseline knowledge of many species? songs is often incomplete. Due to its broad Neotropical distribution (from Cape Horn to Mesoamerica), Cistothorus platensis (Grass Wrens) is an outstanding model to evaluate geographic variation between populations. We used a large sample of song recordings of Grass Wrens to provide a detailed description of song sharing, structure and organization for a resident south temperate population. Over two breeding seasons (October-February, 2016 - 2018) we recorded 29 color-banded males in the Uspallata Valley, Mendoza, Argentina. We analyzed 27795 songs and estimated syllable and song type repertoires for each male through a simple enumeration technique. We also determined the number of syllable and song type that males shared. Males often delivered singing bouts perched from the tallest inflorescences of Cortaderia selloana (Pampa Grass) and repeated a sequence of two or three song types several times before switching song types. The shape and structure of syllables was highly preserved within and between different males. We identified a total of 187 different syllable types and 228 different song types. The males from which we recorded the greatest numbers of songs had repertoires of an average of 100 syllables and 97 songs. Males shared the 81.28 % of syllable types and the 68.86 % of song types. Our results confirmed the expected relationship between site fidelity and song sharing, and contributed with data from a south temperate continental population that is essential for a compressive analysis of the geographic variation of the Cistothorus wren song. Abstract - The study of geographic variation in birdsong provides insights into vocal evolution. Despite longstanding interest in the role of song to understand the evolution of communication signals, baseline knowledge of many species? songs is often incomplete. Due to its broad Neotropical distribution (from Cape Horn to Mesoamerica), Cistothorus platensis (Grass Wrens) is an outstanding model to evaluate geographic variation between populations. We used a large sample of song recordings of Grass Wrens to provide a detailed description of song sharing, structure and organization for a resident south temperate population. Over two breeding seasons (October-February, 2016 - 2018) we recorded 29 color-banded males in the Uspallata Valley, Mendoza, Argentina. We analyzed 27795 songs and estimated syllable and song type repertoires for each male through a simple enumeration technique. We also determined the number of syllable and song type that males shared. Males often delivered singing bouts perched from the tallest inflorescences of Cortaderia selloana (Pampa Grass) and repeated a sequence of two or three song types several times before switching song types. The shape and structure of syllables was highly preserved within and between different males. We identified a total of 187 different syllable types and 228 different song types. The males from which we recorded the greatest numbers of songs had repertoires of an average of 100 syllables and 97 songs. Males shared the 81.28 % of syllable types and the 68.86 % of song types. Our results confirmed the expected relationship between site fidelity and song sharing, and contributed with data from a south temperate continental population that is essential for a compressive analysis of the geographic variation of the Cistothorus wren song.