Sounding the alarm:Functionally referential signaling in Azure-winged Magpie  

作　　者：Xingyi Jiang Yanyun Zhang 

机构地区：[1]Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Ecological Engineering,College of Life Sciences,Beijing Normal University,Beijing 100875,China

出　　处：《Avian Research》2024年第1期35-41,共7页鸟类学研究（英文版）

基　　金：funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32170516, 31872243 to Y.Z.)。

摘　　要：Functionally referential signals are a complex form of communication that conveys information about the external environment.Such signals have been found in a range of mammal and bird species and have helped us understand the complexities of animal communication.Corvids are well known for their extraordinary cognitive abilities,but relatively little attention has been paid to their vocal function.Here,we investigated the functionally referential signals of a cooperatively breeding corvid species,Azure-winged Magpie(Cyanopica cyanus).Through field observations,we suggest that Azure-winged Magpie uses referential alarm calls to distinguish two types of threats:’rasp’ calls for terrestrial threats and ’chatter’ calls for aerial threats.A playback experiment revealed that Azure-winged Magpies responded to the two call types with qualitatively different behaviors.They sought cover by flying into the bushes in response to the ’chatter’ calls,and flew to or stayed at higher positions in response to ’rasp’ calls,displaying a shorter response time to ’chatter’ calls.Significant differences in acoustic structure were found between the two types of calls.Given the extensive cognitive abilities of corvids and the fact that referential signals were once thought to be unique to primates,these findings are important for expanding our understanding of social communication and language evolution.

关 键 词：Alarm call Animal communication Azure-winged Magpie Referential signal 

分 类 号：Q958[生物学—动物学]