Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2005 Jun 24;308(5730):1934-7.
doi: 10.1126/science.1108841.

Allometry of alarm calls: black-capped chickadees encode information about predator size

Christopher N Templeton  1 , Erick Greene, Kate Davis
Affiliations

Allometry of alarm calls: black-capped chickadees encode information about predator size

Christopher N Templeton et al. Science. .

Abstract

Many animals produce alarm signals when they detect a potential predator, but we still know little about the information contained in these signals. Using presentations of 15 species of live predators, we show that acoustic features of the mobbing calls of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla) vary with the size of the predator. Companion playback experiments revealed that chickadees detect this information and that the intensity of mobbing behavior is related to the size and threat of the potential predator. This study demonstrates an unsuspected level of complexity and sophistication in avian alarm calls.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

  • Behavior. Bird alarm calls size up predators.
    Miller G. Miller G. Science. 2005 Jun 24;308(5730):1853-5. doi: 10.1126/science.308.5730.1853a. Science. 2005. PMID: 15976280 No abstract available.
  • A "chick-a-dee" or a "co-qui"?
    Michael SF, Templeton CN, Greene E. Michael SF, et al. Science. 2005 Oct 28;310(5748):620-1; author reply 620-1. doi: 10.1126/science.310.5748.620b. Science. 2005. PMID: 16254170 No abstract available.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources