DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Implications of Production Constraints for the Function of Vocal Performance in Mate Choice

雄鸟鸣叫的主要功能是吸引雌鸟作为配偶。 然而，并非所有歌曲在实现这一目标方面都同样有效。 例如，雌性更有可能与发出更长或更多种类歌曲的雄性交配，大概是因为雄性这样做的能力与他作为潜在伴侣的品质的某些方面相对应。 这个项目调查了一种新的机制，通过这种机制，雌性利用歌声来评估雄性是否是潜在的伴侣：雄性发出难以唱出的歌声的能力。 当鸟类唱歌时，它们通过张开喙产生高频音调和闭合喙产生低频音调来产生纯音，这使得很难产生宽带和快速的颤音歌曲。 “声乐表演”是指男性科普这种困难的能力，可能反映男性素质。 本项目拟检验雌性利用声音表现来选择配偶的假设，因为它反映了雄性的品质，研究雌性能够区分这种微妙的歌曲特征的机制，并检验喙运动如何影响声音表现的关键预测。 该项目的更广泛影响是促进妇女在科学领域的专业发展，向公众传播科学，并提供对保护濒危生境至关重要的生物数据。

A primary function of male bird song is to attract females as mates. However, not all songs are equally effective at achieving this goal. For example, females are more likely to mate with males that produce longer songs or more kinds of songs, presumably because a male's ability to do so corresponds to some aspect of his quality as a potential mate. This project investigates a new mechanism by which females use song to assess males as potential mates: the ability of males to produce songs that are hard to sing. When birds sing they produce pure tone sounds by opening their beaks to produce high frequency tones and by closing their beaks to produce low frequency tones making it difficult to produce trilled songs that are both broadband and rapid. "Vocal performance" refers to the ability of males to cope with this difficulty and may reflect male quality. This project proposes to test the hypothesis that females use vocal performance to choose mates because it reflects male quality, to investigate a mechanism by which females are able to discriminate such subtle features of song, and to test a key prediction of how beak movements affect vocal performance. The broader impacts of this project are to foster the professional development of women in science, disseminate science to the public and provide biological data important for conservation of an endangered habitat.