Song sharing by neighbourhood groups of territorial male Blackeyed Bulbuls |
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Authors: | Penn Lloyd Pat E. Hulley Adrian J.F.K. Craig |
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Affiliation: | Department of Zoology , Rhodes University , Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa |
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Abstract: | Lloyd, P., Hulley, P.E. & Craig, A.J.F.K. 1999. Song sharing by neighbourhood groups of territorial male Blackeyed Bulbuls. Ostrich 70 (3&4): 208–213 The territorial song of the Blackeyed Bulbul Pycnonotus barbatus is described for a population followed over two breeding seasons in suburban Grahamstown, South Africa. The Blackeyed Bulbul has a discrete and highly structured system of phrase sharing by neighbourhood groups of males. The most common repertoire size is five phrases (mean 5.5; range 2–9). In a temporally-stable song population, individual phrases are shared independently by discrete clusters of males. Neighbours show a strong tendency to share phrase types (but rarely whole repertoires), with overall song similarity decreasing rapidly with increasing distance between birds. This species is an ideal candidate for testing hypotheses concerning the adaptive value of song sharing by neighbourhood groups. |
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