Syracuse

Blue Tit song repertoire size, male quality and interspecific competition

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Doutrelant, Claire | Blondel, Jacques | Perret, Philippe | Lambrechts, Marcel M.

Edité par CCSD ; Wiley -

International audience. A recent hypothesis suggested that bird song repertoire size is a reliable indication of male quality because the number of songs emitted by an individual and the expression of many traits important for fitness are highly dependent on developmental conditions. To test this hypothesis, we studied the relationship between song repertoire size and a trait known to be strongly affected by developmental conditions: tarsus length of Blue Tits Parus caeruleus. We studied this relationship in three populations presenting differences in density, quantity of food available and relative and absolute densities of Great Tits Parus major. Great Tit density may be an important factor because this species is supposed to be in competition for acoustic space with the Blue Tit. We found a positive correlation between Blue Tit dawn repertoire size and tarsus length in the three study populations which is consistent with the tested hypothesis. However, this correlation was only significant in the population with the lower Great Tit density. We discuss the significance of this variation and propose that interspecific competition may limit the action of sexual selection on song repertoire size.

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