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Science 16 September 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5742, p. 1812
DOI: 10.1126/science.309.5742.1812c
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Random Samples

Figure 2 The plain-tailed wrens of Ecuador may not look like much. But they do something unique in the bird world: synchronized antiphonal chorusing. Researchers have found that small groups of male and female wrens sing in such perfectly timed, alternating tweets that what emerges sounds like a call from a single bird.

A team led by Peter Slater, an ornithologist at St. Andrews University in Fife, U.K., found tight groups of the wrens singing in the underbrush during a 2002 survey in the Andes. Extensive subsequent recordings and observations, reported online 7 September in Biology Letters, revealed that each sex has a repertoire of about 20 phrases. When they sing together, members of each sex spontaneously choose the same two phrases, creating songs that can last up to 2 minutes. As many as seven birds can sound like a single chirper.

The reason for this complex vocalization is a mystery. One possibility is that, because the male and female wrens look alike--common in tropical birds--the group effort helps coordinate mating. Another is that the amplified song scares off intruders. The feathered choirs may help us understand how bird species acquire new songs, says Katharina Riebel, an ornithologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands. (For a sample song, go to sciencenow.sciencemag.org/feature/data/Plain-tailed-wren.wav)

CREDIT: PETER SLATER/ST.ANDREWS UNIVERSITY




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