The song of male songbirds has the function of repelling rivals and attracting mates. Females often pay attention to certain features within a song, such as the “sexy syllables”, to assess the quality of the singing male. A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen and the University of Copenhagen, headed by Henrik Brumm, has now discovered that rock sparrows indicate their age and reproductive success with their songs and react to infidelity with a higher song volume. The scientists found that the tempo, pitch and amplitude of song reflect male reproductive success. Cuckolded males regardless of whether they were young or old, sang louder.
gaining more extra-pair young, whereas there is nothing else