The singing behavior of prairie warblers (Dendroica discolor)

The song system of Prairie Warblers can be partitioned into two physically and functionally distinct categories. A songs and B songs can be distinguished by their overall form and many acoustic characteristics. A songs relative to B songs, were lower in frequency, had a greater number of shorter “buzzy” notes and were longer in duration. Males tended to use A songs in an intersexual context. Unmated males sung A songs almost exclusively. A songs were also used in the presence of females throughout the breeding season. B songs were more likely to be used in an intersexual context. Once males were mated they began to sing a dawn chorus of B songs and tended to sing a higher percentage of B songs throughout the day. Males which either experimentally or naturally had their mate removed switched to singing A songs at a high rate. The geographic pattern of song types differed for A and B songs. Males within a population tended to have B songs, but not A songs, that were more similar in acoustic characteristics. The macrogeographic pattern of song types was also different in the two song categories. A songs tended to be widely distributed throughout the species range. In contrast many B song forms where limited geographically