How Do You Rate This Publication?       

Title:	Call mimicry by eastern towhees and its significance in relation to auditory learning
Author(s):	Greenlaw, Jon S.; Shackelford, Clifford E.; Brown, Raymond E.
Date:	1998
Source:	Wilson Bulletin. 110(3): 431-434.
Description:	The authors document cases of eastern towhees (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) using mimicked alarm calls from three presumptive models (blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), and American robin (Turdus migratorius)). In four instances, male towhees employed heterospecific calls without substitution in their own call repertoires. Three birds (New Jersey, New York) used jay-like calls mixed with "Chewink" calls in the same bouts of calling. One bird (New York) increased the frequency of its mimicked call during intense reactions to disturbance (high rate of calling). A Texas towhee employed jay-like and Chewink calls separately in different contexts. In another case, sequences of robin-like alarm calls were used by a towhee to form unusual, distinctive song-types during bouts of singing. These observations suggest that some aspects of towhee alarm call repertoires may be influenced by auditory learning, and that mimicked alarm calls also can be incorporated into song repertoires.
	View and Print this Publication (141 KB)
Publication Notes:	We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information. This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain. Our on-line publications are scanned and captured using Adobe Acrobat. During the capture process some typographical errors may occur. Please contact the SRS Webmaster, srswebmaster@fs.fed.us if you notice any errors which make this publication unuseable.
	Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility