Harry Hann Endowed Research Seminar: "Vocal Duetting in Tropical Wrens: Acoustic Communication in the Animal Kingdom's Most Coordinated Singers

This is part of our 2011 Summer Lecture Series

2011 HARRY HANN ENDOWED RESEARCH SEMINAR. Although female song is very rare in temperate zone animals both sexes sing in many tropical animals. In some tropical species, male and female breeding partners combine their songs to produce coordinated vocal duets. Duetting behavior is widespread in the tropics, but it is poorly understood. In this seminar, University of Windsor Associate Professor Dan Mennill presents a decade of field research on the vocal duets of the Rufous-and-white Wren, a Costa Rican songbird. He will present a series of descriptive and experimental studies that address the question: Why do tropical animals coordinate their songs in coordinated vocal duets?