A comparison of auditory brainstem responses across diving bird species

© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. There is little biological data available for diving birds because many live in hard-to-study, remote habitats. Only one species of diving bird, the black-footed penguin (Spheniscusdemersus), has been studied in respect to auditory capabilities (Wever et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 63:676–680, 1969). We, therefore, measured in-air auditory threshold in ten species of diving birds, using the auditory brainstem response (ABR). The average audiogram obtained for each species followed the U-shape typical of birds and many other animals. All species tested shared a common region of the greatest sensitivity, from 1000 to 3000 Hz, although audiograms differed significantly across species. Thresholds of all duck species tested were more similar to each other than to the two non-duck species tested. The red-throated loon (Gavia stellata) and northern gannet (Morus bassanus) exhibited the highest thresholds while the lowest thresholds belonged to the duck species, specifically the lesser scaup (Aythyaaffinis) and ruddy duck (Oxyurajamaicensis). Vocalization parameters were also measured for each species, and showed that with the exception of the common eider (Somateriamollisima), the peak frequency, i.e., frequency at the greatest intensity, of all species’ vocalizations measured here fell between 1000 and 3000 Hz, matching the bandwidth of the most sensitive hearing range

Evoked cochlear potentials in the barn owl

Gross electrical responses to tone bursts were measured in adult barn owls, using a single-ended wire electrode placed onto the round window. Cochlear microphonic (CM) and compound action potential (CAP) responses were evaluated separately. Both potentials were physiologically vulnerable. Selective abolishment of neural responses at high frequencies confirmed that the CAP was of neural origin, while the CM remained unaffected. CAP latencies decreased with increasing stimulus frequency and CAP amplitudes were correlated with known variations in afferent fibre numbers from the different papillar regions. This suggests a local origin of the CAP along the tonotopic gradient within the basilar papilla. The audiograms derived from CAP and CM threshold responses both showed a broad frequency region of optimal sensitivity, very similar to behavioural and single-unit data, but shifted upward in absolute sensitivity. CAP thresholds rose above 8 kHz, while CM responses showed unchanged sensitivity up to 10 kHz

Learned kin recognition cues in a social bird

In many cooperatively breeding birds, kin selection has an important role in the evolution and maintenance of social behaviour, and 'helpers' can maximize indirect fitness gains by preferentially allocating care to close relatives. Although there is evidence for kin-biased helping behaviour in several species, the mechanism of kin recognition underlying this behaviour is poorly understood. Vocalizations are the most commonly used cues in avian recognition systems, but the effectiveness of vocal signals as reliable recognition cues must depend on how they are acquired. However, there have been no experimental studies of the development of vocal recognition cues in cooperative birds; indeed, the ontogeny of all bird vocalizations other than song is poorly known in any species. Here, we show that cooperatively breeding long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) can discriminate between kin and non-kin according to the individual-specific characteristics of contact calls, and show experimentally that individuals learn these calls from provisioning adults during the nestling period. Finally, we show that the pattern of cooperative behaviour in this species is consistent with the use of recognition cues learned through association