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1 September 2014 Dawn singing of Eastern Phoebes varies with breeding stage and brood number
Adrianna Bruni, Jennifer R. Foote
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Abstract

The dawn chorus is a daily period of continuous singing by male songbirds that begins prior to sunrise. It is relatively less studied than daytime singing, and particularly in suboscine birds. We analyzed dawn singing of 14 Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) in Echo Bay, Ontario over the 2011–2012 breeding seasons. We measured time of first song, length of dawn bout, time of final song, average song rate, and peak song rate and compared these characteristics among breeding stages. Results indicated that breeding stage was a significant predictor of all five dawn song features. Our results suggest that dawn singing of Eastern Phoebes is directly related to female fertility. We show that males begin singing significantly earlier when females are fertile. Males sang significantly longer during fertile and incubation stages than while feeding young. Males began singing later and sang for the shortest duration during the pre-breeding period. Song rates were higher in first broods than in second broods. We showed that suboscine dawn signaling patterns vary across breeding seasons in ways similar to oscine songbirds.

2014 by the Wilson Ornithological Society
Adrianna Bruni and Jennifer R. Foote "Dawn singing of Eastern Phoebes varies with breeding stage and brood number," The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 126(3), 500-507, (1 September 2014). https://doi.org/10.1676/13-175.1
Received: 21 October 2013; Accepted: 1 March 2014; Published: 1 September 2014
KEYWORDS
breeding stage
dawn chorus
Eastern Phoebe
multi-brooded
song rate
time of first song
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