Local song evolution after three decades in a complex songster, the Thrush Nightingale

Abstract

Birdsong is an important secondary sexual trait which may vary between but also within species. Intraspecific variation is generally studied either on the geographical or on the temporal scale; most of the studies exploring the variation of song over time, however, focused on species with rather simple songs. In this study, we explored the temporal changes in song of a complex songster, the Thrush Nightingale (Luscinia luscinia), recorded after 33 years (in 1986 and 2019) at the same locality in south-eastern Finland. Our analysis revealed a complete turnover of song types over the study period, with no song type shared between the two recording years. In contrast, 40% of the originally recorded syllable types were still found in the repertoires of recently recorded males. Their song type repertoires were significantly smaller but the songs themselves were on average longer compared to the 1986 recordings. Repertoires of both syllables and song types were more shared between males recorded in 1986 than between those from 2019. We discuss the processes that may have contributed to these temporal changes in song and call for more detailed studies of song evolution in wild populations.