Song matching in a long‐lived, sedentary bird with a low song rate: The importance of song type, song duration and intrusion

Territorial songbirds often match the song features or singing patterns of rivals, commonly as an aggressive signal. Most studies of song matching have been on Northern Hemisphere species with short lifespans and high song rates, but vocal matching is predicted to be affected both by longevity and territorial stability. We studied song matching in males of the white‐browed scrubwren, Sericornis frontalis, a long‐lived, sedentary, territorial Australian songbird. We quantified natural song rate and diversity, and then conducted three playback experiments to test: (a) whether males match by song type; (b) how they respond physically and vocally to territorial intrusion; and (c) whether they match by song length, and use it as an agonistic signal. Males naturally had very low song rates, singing on average less than three times per hour, and moderate repertoires, with an estimated mean of 17.5 song types for individual males. Males did not engage in extended counter‐singing bouts. The first experiment showed that males matched the song type of immediate neighbours almost 90% of the time, if that type was in their repertoire. The remaining experiments revealed that song‐type matching was an aggressive signal; males responded more aggressively to, and were more likely to match, playback simulating a neighbour's territorial intrusion than song from their shared boundary. Males did not match songs by length, but they produced longer songs after simulated intrusion. Males also responded more aggressively to playback of longer songs that simulated intrusion, but less aggressively to longer songs from the territory boundary. Overall, we show that sedentary, long‐lived songbirds with low song rates, can use song‐type matching as an aggressive signal to communicate with neighbours and intruders. Song length had a different role in communication, possibly related to individual quality or territory ownership. White‐browed scrubwrens are long‐lived and sedentary, but use song‐type matching as an aggressive response to territorial intrusion. Despite very low song rates and a moderate repertoire size, males nearly always used the same song type in their single‐song response to simulated territorial intrusion by neighbours. They were less likely to match, and showed lower aggression, to playbacks from the territory boundary