AUTHOR=Guillette Lauren M., Farrell Tara M., Hoeschele Marisa , Sturdy Christopher B.

TITLE=Acoustic Mechanisms of a Species-Based Discrimination of the chick-a-dee Call in Sympatric Black-Capped (Poecile atricapillus) and Mountain Chickadees (P. gambeli)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=1

YEAR=2010

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00229

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00229

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>Previous perceptual research with black-capped and mountain chickadees has demonstrated that these species treat each other's namesake <italic>chick-a-dee</italic> calls as belonging to separate, open-ended categories. Further, the terminal <italic>dee</italic> portion of the call has been implicated as the most prominent species marker. However, statistical classification using acoustic summary features suggests that all note-types contained within the <italic>chick-a-dee</italic> call should be sufficient for species classification. The current study seeks to better understand the note-type based mechanisms underlying species-based classification of the <italic>chick-a-dee</italic> call by black-capped and mountain chickadees. In two, complementary, operant discrimination experiments, both species were trained to discriminate the species of the signaler using either entire <italic>chick-a-dee</italic> calls, or individual note-types from <italic>chick-a-dee</italic> calls. In agreement with previous perceptual work we find that the D note had significant stimulus control over species-based discrimination. However, in line with statistical classifications, we find that all note-types carry species information. We discuss reasons why the most easily discriminated note-types are likely candidates to carry species-based cues.</p>