How Songbird Females Sample Male Song: Communication Networks and Mate Choice

The behavioural decisions animals take directly influence their fitness andthus have a fundamental impact on evolutionary processes. In many animals,acoustic signals play an important role in social decisions with mate choice beingamong the most apparent ones. Male bird song has played a key role along this line, yet the understanding of how female birds use song to prospect, assess and choose mates in their natural environment is surprisingly limited. A main reason for this limited understanding is that it is very difficult to follow a female during her prospecting and decision process and quantify her experience with different males before she makes a final decision. Here we integrate insights from communication networks, male song traits and female prospecting behaviour to stimulate a more integrative approach on the role of signalling in behavioural and reproductive decisions