ArticleRoyal Society open science2019
Loss of cultural song diversity and the convergence of songs in a declining Hawaiian forest bird community.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Rescue of the traditional song culture of a critically endangered songbird.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Acoustic Traits of Three Hawaiian Honeycreepers in a Fragmented Landscape.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Conserving avian vocal culture.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Animal culture: conservation in a changing world.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- The effect of social structure on vocal flexibility in monk parakeets.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Geographical distribution of two acoustic fin whale (Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Global analysis of acoustic frequency characteristics in birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Frequency-dependence may moderate fitness costs linked to reduced bird song complexity.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Widespread cultural change in declining populations of Amazon parrots.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Subspecies Taxonomy and Inter-Population Divergences of the Critically Endangered Yellow-Breasted Bunting: Evidence from Song Variations.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Efficiency fosters cumulative culture across species.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Loss of vocal culture and fitness costs in a critically endangered songbird.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Loss of cultural song diversity and the convergence of songs in a declining Hawaiian forest bird community.Royal Society open science · 2019Article
- A test of the mechanistic process behind the convergent agonistic character displacement hypothesis.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
The effects of population decline on culturally transmitted behaviours in animals have rarely been described, but may have major implications to population viability. Learned vocal signals in birds are of critical importance to behaviours associated with reproduction, intrasexual interactions and group cohesion, and the complexity of vocal signals such as song can serve as an honest signal of an individual's quality as well as the viability of a population. In this study, we examined how rapid population declines recently experienced by Hawaiian honeycreepers on the island of Kaua'i (USA) may have influenced the diversity, complexity and similarity of learned honeycreeper songs. We analysed the acoustic characteristics of songs recorded during three time periods over a 40-year time frame for three species of declining Kaua'i honeycreepers. We detected a loss of song complexity and diversity over the 40-year time period that paralleled dramatic population declines. Concurrent with the loss of complexity, we also found that the acoustic characteristics of the three honeycreepers' songs became more similar to one another. To our knowledge, this is the first documentation of convergence of acoustic characteristics among rapidly declining species. The reduction in song complexity and diversity and convergence of songs not only signals a loss of culturally transmitted behaviours in these endemic Hawaiian honeycreepers, but also potential challenges to the recovery of these rapidly declining species. Moreover, the present study highlights that there is a 'hidden' cost to declining populations beyond just the loss of individuals that is not often considered, the loss of culturally transmitted social behaviours.
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