Data from: Serenade of a Whimbrel: Understanding the function of display behaviour in a sub-Arctic territorial wader
Data files
Dec 04, 2024 version files 50.77 KB
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Data_Serenade_of_a_Whimbrel.csv
49.04 KB
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README.md
1.73 KB
Abstract
Animal sounds contain important information used in intra- and inter-species communication. For species exhibiting elaborate and energetically expensive signals such as aerial displays accompanied by a call, the nature of the message being transmitted is honest and usually reflects individual fitness. Display events that combine flight and calls and are executed during the breeding season have traditionally been associated with two main functions: repelling rivals and/or attracting mates. In waders, the distinction between the two could not only rely on the timing of the breeding season at which displays occur but also on the frequency at which displays occur in relation to local breeding density. Here, we investigated the function of display behaviour in the Icelandic Whimbrel throughout the breeding season and along a breeding density gradient. We used a site-based approach in the southern lowland plain in Iceland where Whimbrel breeding density and display frequency were recorded for two years. Although whimbrels showed display behaviour throughout the entire season, display frequency was higher at low densities during pre-incubation but similar at different densities during incubation and post-incubation. Our results indicate that this behaviour is context-dependent and pluripotent, supporting the importance of mate attraction at low conspecific density during pre-incubation, while other functions such as resource defense may be important throughout the breeding season.
README: Data from: Serenade of a Whimbrel: Understanding the function of display behaviour in a sub-Arctic territorial wader
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn4m
Description of the data and file structure
Data was collected at 6 study sites where Whimbrel counts and acoustic point counts were carried out.
Whimbrel counts: the number of adult Whimbrel were recorded every time a site was visited. Counts were performed along dirt tracks by driving slowly - always the same route- using binoculars, and carefully noting the location of the birds to avoid double counting. These counts were later used to calculate breeding density during the incubation period.
Acoustic point counts: we selected 3 to 5 fixed points within each site. On each point, the number of Whimbrel aerial displays were counted for three minutes. This data was used to obtain the frequency of displays per point.
Files and variables
File: Data_Serenade_of_a_Whimbrel.csv
Description:
Variables
The first row contains the variable's names:
- year: Sampling year, 2020 or 2021
- site: Site name (six different sites in total)
- point: fixed point-count ID. A total of 3 to 5 fixed-points per site where the acoustic surveys took place.
- breeding_density: Whimbrel breeding density for the incubation period (Mean of the maximum three counts of Whimbrel pairs recorded during incubation, divided by the area of the site in km2).
- breeding_period: pre-incubation, incubation, and post-incubation.
- displays: frequency of displays per point.
Code/software
The software used for this analysis is R. The packages used were lmer4 for models and performance for model validation.