Song tutor choice in polyandrous dunnocks

The songs of a population of wild dunnocks, Prunella modularis, were record ed over 3 yrs to investigate song tutor choice by first year males. Young m ales often settled on occupied territories as subordinates and most of thei r earliest territorial interactions were with the male on whose territory t hey settled (the co-male). Yearlings learned their song repertoire from the ir comales and territorial neighbours. This supports results of laboratory studies which suggest that social interactions influence song tutor choice and that yearlings are most likely to learn from the males that are most ag gressive towards them. Repertoire overlap between neighbouring males was hi gh (76%), so learning the repertoire of the comale may provide yearling mal es with a 'short cut' route to learning a few of the songs of every neighbo ur.