DUNNOCKS DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN THE SONGS OF FAMILIAR INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT DIRECTIONAL CUES

Playback experiments have demonstrated that many species of birds disc riminate between the songs of neighbours and strangers, and also that they discriminate between familiar songs played from their usual locat ion and from the opposite direction. The mechanism underlying this dis crimination could be true recognition of individuals, or association o f familiar songs with familiar locations. Here I used playbacks to tes t whether dunnocks (Prunella modularis) can discriminate between two c lasses of familiar songs; songs of neighbours and songs of co-males (m ales who share a territory in a polyandrous or polygynandrous group). Resident males tolerate co-males on their territory but defend their t erritories vigorously against intrusions from neighbours. Dunnocks app roached the songs of neighbours significantly more than the songs of c o-males, and they responded more quickly to the songs of neighbours th an co-males. Responses to neighbours' songs were the same whether they were played from the centre of the territory or the boundary shared w ith the neighbour. This indicates that the mechanism underlying discri mination in dunnocks is not simply habituation to familiar songs from familiar directions. Dunnocks may either have true recognition of indi viduals, or they might have a precise ability to range songs which ena bles them to habituate to familiar songs when they are sung from both a familiar direction and a familiar distance.