Territory tenure in song sparrows is related to song sharing with neighbours, but not to repertoire size

Song repertoires may be a product of sexual selection and several studies h ave reported correlations of repertoire size and reproductive success in ma le songbirds. This hypothesis and the reported correlations, however, are n ot sufficient to explain the observation that most species have small song repertoire sizes (usually fewer than 10, often fewer than five song types). We examined a second important aspect of a male's song repertoire, the ext ent to which he shares songs with his neighbours. Song sharing has not been measured in previous studies and it may be partially confounded with reper toire size. We hypothesized that in song sparrows, Melospiza melodia, song sharing rather than repertoire size per se is crucial for male territorial success. Our longitudinal study of 45 song sparrows followed from their fir st year on territory showed that the number of songs a bird shares with his neighbourhood group is a better predictor of lifetime territory tenure tha n is his repertoire size, We also found that song sharing increases with re pertoire size up to but not beyond eight to nine song types, which are the most common repertoire sizes in the population (range in our sample 5-13). This partial confound of song sharing and repertoire size may account for s ome earlier findings of territory tenure-repertoire size correlations in th is species and other species having small- or medium-sized repertoires, (C) 2000 nle Association for the Shiny of Animal Behaviour.