The Association between Vocal Characteristics and Habitat Type in Taiwanese Passerines(Ecology)

概要

論文の詳細を見る
We analyzed the vocalizations of twelve Taiwanese passerines to examine whether vocal characteristics are associated with habitat type: edge, forest canopy, and forest floor. Morton [1] and Richards and Wiley [2] argue that because sound wave propagation is dependent upon the characteristics of the environment, selection should favor the use of song features which will carry information over the required distance [3]. For each vocalization we calculated the frequency emphasized, the range of frequency modulation, and the duration. We found relatively little variation among the members of each species. Vocal comparisons among habitat types revealed that bird sounds of Taiwanese habitats differ. However, in contrast to the pattern found in the neotropics [1, 2, 4], Taiwanese edge species do not emphasize higher frequencies, over a wider range, and with more rapid repetition, than forest dwellers. Most of the vocal differences among habitat types result from forest floor dwelling Taiwanese passerines vocalizing, on average, at frequencies 2000 Hz lower than other species. This supports the hypothesis that, due to the rapid attenuation of high frequency sound near the ground, bird sounds of the forest floor will be of low frequency.
社団法人日本動物学会の論文
1992-06-15