Characteristics of male Spot-bellied Bobwhite (Colinus leucopogon) song during territory establishment

Abstract

In song-learning birds, male song shows a large inter-individual variation that frequently plays an important role in intra- and inter-sexual selection. In other bird groups, such as Galliformes, song learning is absent, and inter-individual song variation is small and expected to play a minor, if any, role in sexual contexts. In the Spot-bellied Bobwhite (Colinus leucopogon) we found that many males have a unique set of song features, and our results suggest that female mate choice in this species is based in part on male song traits. Most paired males in our study had longer songs. In addition, these males established territories in the middle of the breeding season, soon after the onset of the rainy season when increases in herbaceous cover and food resources would likely increase offspring and adult survival.