The research described here tested for relationships among behavioral consistency, personality traits, and communicative behavior in a socially and vocally complex avian species, the Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis). First, I tested for the existence of behavioral profiles, also known as non-human animal personality, across varying contexts (presence of predator, foraging within a novel object, and novel conspecific) in the laboratory. I found evidence for behavioral profiles encompassing behavioral patterns such as activity, affiliation, aggression, and boldness. Second, I incorporated a larger social component to these studies by testing birds housed in social groups in semi-naturalistic aviary settings. In the aviaries, I tested for behavioral profiles in more complex social environments, and also tested for relationships between personality-like influences and the chick-a-dee call, the key vocalization of this species used in social organization. There has been very little work devoted to testing relationships between personality-like traits and communicative behavior. As in the laboratory study, I found evidence for behavioral profiles in the more complex social setting of the aviaries. I found aggression and boldness to be strongly, positively correlated with chick-a-dee call rate. Additionally, I found particular note types within the chick-a-dee call to be indicative of both aggressive behavior and avian predator presence. Taken together, findings from these studies indicate that personality-like influences in chickadees may play an important role in constraining variation in individual, social, and communicative behavior
