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The Effect of Hemosporidian Infections on White‐Crowned Sparrow Singing Behavior
Author(s) -
Gilman Sarah,
Blumstein Daniel T.,
Foufopoulos Johannes
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
ethology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0179-1613
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2006.01341.x
Subject(s) - leucocytozoon , haemoproteus , singing , canto , sparrow , intrusion , biology , emberizidae , plasmodium (life cycle) , zoology , white (mutation) , ecology , gametocyte , immunology , malaria , parasite hosting , acoustics , art , literature , world wide web , computer science , biochemistry , habitat , plasmodium falciparum , physics , geochemistry , gene , geology
Relatively little is known about the effects of specific parasites on sexually selected behavioral traits. We subjected free‐living mountain white‐crowned sparrows ( Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha ) to a playback experiment to identify the effect of hemosporidian parasites on potentially sexually selected song characteristics. We recorded song after a playback of a novel white‐crowned sparrow song, meant to simulate a territorial intrusion. Infections with Leucocytozoon or Plasmodium influenced singing behavior, while infection with Haemoproteus had no detectable effect. Specifically, song consistency, as measured using a spectrogram correlation, was influenced by both Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon infection. Additionally, birds infected with Plasmodium sang fewer songs following experimental playback. Thus, relatively widespread parasites, like Plasmodium , may have a strong effect on potentially sexually selected song characteristics.