In the latest NYT Science pages:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/science/05obse1.html?ref=science
The Quality of the Duet by Magpie-Larks Speaks
Volumes
For years in country music, when it came to duets, George Jones and Tammy
Wynette ruled the roost. Their performances were so musically and emotionally
strong they blew the competition out of the water.
Australian magpie-larks, it seems, have their Joneses and Wynettes.
Researchers report in the journal Current
Biology that male-female pairs that sing the most tightly coordinated duets are
perceived as a greater threat by other magpie-larks.
Michelle Hall and Robert D. Magrath of the Australian National University
studied the birds? singing, recording duets from pairs that had been together
for varying periods. Pairs produce an alternating antiphonal song that, if the
coordination is precise enough, sounds like a single bird singing.
The researchers discovered that pairs that had been together longer produced
more coordinated songs. Younger couples were generally sloppier, with
inconsistent gaps between the notes.
The researchers played coordinated and sloppy duets over other magpie-larks?
territories and found that single males responded more aggressively when they
heard the tight singing. The researchers suggest that the coordinated singing is
an indication to potential competitors that the couple forms a strong
partnership and that if they are good at singing together, they might be good at
other coordinated activity as well ? like defending their
territory.
