Acoustic Communication in Birds, Volume 1: Production, Perception, and Design Features of Sounds presents the scientific study of bird vocalizations. This book discusses the relations between the physical structure of bird vocalization and their quality as perceived by the recipient. Organized into nine chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the first sound recording of bird sound. This text then outlines some of the complex processes and events between sound production and behavior response to sound. Other chapters consider the study of neural control of vocalizations in birds. This book discusses as well the acoustic information transmitted through the wide range of habitats plays a crucial role in different avian behaviors, including individual and species recognition, territorial defense, mate selection, and song learning. The final chapter deals with a more detailed functional interpretation of a particular sound. This book is a valuable resource for ornithologists, ethologists, and research workers.

With song often serving dual strategies of territorial defense and female attraction, studies using playback techniques have shown how birds interact, demonstrated difference between males and females in the perception of sounds.

Acoustic Communication in Birds, Volume 2: Song Learning and Its Consequences investigates acoustic communication in birds, with emphasis on song learning and its consequences. Some issues in the study of bird sounds are discussed, with particular reference to evolutionary considerations. The ontogeny of acoustic behavior in birds is also considered, along with sound production, neural control of song, and auditory perception. Comprised of nine chapters, this volume begins with an introduction to the nature, extent, and evolution of vocal learning in birds. Several well-documented examples in which vocal development appears to proceed independently of audition (and therefore independently of vocal learning) are presented, together with aspects of selective vocal learning; the timing of vocal learning; and selective forces that may have promoted the evolution of vocal learning in birds. Subsequent chapters explore the role of subsong and plastic song in the vocal learning process; the function and evolution of avian vocal mimicry; the ecological and social significance of duetting in birds; and microgeographic and macrogeographic variation in the acquired vocalizations of birds. The book also examines genetic population structure and vocal dialects in Zonotrichia (Emberizidae). This monograph will be of interest to ornithologists, evolutionary biologists, and zoologists, as well as to students of communication and bioacoustics.

In order to communicate, animals send and receive signals that are subject to their particular anatomical, psychological, and environmental constraints. This SHAR volume discusses both the production and perception of acoustic signals. Chapters address the information that animals communicate, how the communication is developed and learned, and how communication systems have adapted and evolved within species. The book will give examples from a variety of species.

Acoustic Communication in Birds, Volume 2: Song Learning and Its Consequences investigates acoustic communication in birds, with emphasis on song learning and its consequences. Some issues in the study of bird sounds are discussed, with particular reference to evolutionary considerations. The ontogeny of acoustic behavior in birds is also considered, along with sound production, neural control of song, and auditory perception. Comprised of nine chapters, this volume begins with an introduction to the nature, extent, and evolution of vocal learning in birds. Several well-documented examples in which vocal development appears to proceed independently of audition (and therefore independently of vocal learning) are presented, together with aspects of selective vocal learning; the timing of vocal learning; and selective forces that may have promoted the evolution of vocal learning in birds. Subsequent chapters explore the role of subsong and plastic song in the vocal learning process; the function and evolution of avian vocal mimicry; the ecological and social significance of duetting in birds; and microgeographic and macrogeographic variation in the acquired vocalizations of birds. The book also examines genetic population structure and vocal dialects in Zonotrichia (Emberizidae). This monograph will be of interest to ornithologists, evolutionary biologists, and zoologists, as well as to students of communication and bioacoustics.