Global incidence of female birdsong is predicted by territoriality and biparental care in songbirds

Karan J. Odom; Macelo Araya Salas; Lauryn Benedict; Kristi Lim; James Dale; Wesley H. Webb; Catherine Sheard; Joseph A. Tobias; Gregory F. Ball; Michelle L. Hall; Naomi E. Langmore; Michael S. Webster; Katharina Riebel

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-60810-5

Global incidence of female birdsong is predicted by territoriality and biparental care in songbirds

Karan J. Odom^* (Corresponding Author)
, Macelo Araya Salas
, Lauryn Benedict
, Kristi Lim
, James Dale
, Wesley H. Webb
, Catherine Sheard
, Joseph A. Tobias
, Gregory F. Ball
, Michelle L. Hall
, Naomi E. Langmore
, Michael S. Webster
, Katharina Riebel

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Pronounced sexual dimorphism is generally assumed to evolve through sexual selection for elaborate male traits. However, there is increasing evidence that sexual dimorphism in traits such as birdsong may also evolve through loss of elaboration in females, but the evolutionary drivers underlying this process are obscure. Here we analyse ecological and natural history traits for over 1300 songbird species and show that increased female song incidence and elaboration are most directly associated with year-round territoriality, biparental care, and large body size. Phylogenetic path analysis indicates that mating system and breeding latitude primarily have indirect effects on female song evolution. Stable, tropical life histories and mating systems with biparental care promote female song, whereas evolutionary transitions to migration, reduced territoriality, and loss of male care led to losses or reductions of female song incidence. Our analyses provide a comprehensive framework for studying the drivers of sex differences and similarities in birdsong and reveal novel interactions among natural history and sexual selection pressures that have been hypothesized to independently shape elaborate traits.

Original language	English
Article number	6157
Number of pages	11
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	16
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60810-5
Publication status	Published - 21 Jul 2025

Bibliographical note

We thank Kevin Omland, Jordan Price, Eliot Miller, Conor Taff, Gavin Leighton, Russell Ligon, Irby Lovette, Victoria Austin, Anastasia Dalziell, Carel ten Cate, Hans Slabekoorn, and Judith Varkevisser for feedback and useful discussions that contributed to the design of this project. We thank Jillian Ditner and the Bartels Science Illustration Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for figure illustration.

Data Availability Statement

Data availability
All data are available for download at figshare: 10.6084/m9.figshare.26799523. Source data are also provided as a Source Data file. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability
All associated code for statistical analyses is available for download at figshare: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.26799523.

Funding

Funding was provided by: the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant no. 703999-YnotSing to KJO) and a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (grant no. 1612861 to KJO), the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Rose Postdoctoral Fellowship Fund, and the University of Maryland, College Park.

Funders	Funder number
European Research Council	703999
National Science Foundation	1612861

Keywords

Sexual selection
Behavioural ecology

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-025-60810-5Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Odom_etal_NC_Global_Incidence_of_VOR
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Final published version, 2.11 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

@article{cfe397c7638640ca9f9472187208533c,

title = "Global incidence of female birdsong is predicted by territoriality and biparental care in songbirds",

abstract = "Pronounced sexual dimorphism is generally assumed to evolve through sexual selection for elaborate male traits. However, there is increasing evidence that sexual dimorphism in traits such as birdsong may also evolve through loss of elaboration in females, but the evolutionary drivers underlying this process are obscure. Here we analyse ecological and natural history traits for over 1300 songbird species and show that increased female song incidence and elaboration are most directly associated with year-round territoriality, biparental care, and large body size. Phylogenetic path analysis indicates that mating system and breeding latitude primarily have indirect effects on female song evolution. Stable, tropical life histories and mating systems with biparental care promote female song, whereas evolutionary transitions to migration, reduced territoriality, and loss of male care led to losses or reductions of female song incidence. Our analyses provide a comprehensive framework for studying the drivers of sex differences and similarities in birdsong and reveal novel interactions among natural history and sexual selection pressures that have been hypothesized to independently shape elaborate traits.",

keywords = "Sexual selection, Behavioural ecology",

author = "Odom, \{Karan J.\} and Salas, \{Macelo Araya\} and Lauryn Benedict and Kristi Lim and James Dale and Webb, \{Wesley H.\} and Catherine Sheard and Tobias, \{Joseph A.\} and Ball, \{Gregory F.\} and Hall, \{Michelle L.\} and Langmore, \{Naomi E.\} and Webster, \{Michael S.\} and Katharina Riebel",

note = "We thank Kevin Omland, Jordan Price, Eliot Miller, Conor Taff, Gavin Leighton, Russell Ligon, Irby Lovette, Victoria Austin, Anastasia Dalziell, Carel ten Cate, Hans Slabekoorn, and Judith Varkevisser for feedback and useful discussions that contributed to the design of this project. We thank Jillian Ditner and the Bartels Science Illustration Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for figure illustration. ",

year = "2025",

month = jul,

day = "21",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-025-60810-5",

language = "English",

volume = "16",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Global incidence of female birdsong is predicted by territoriality and biparental care in songbirds

AU - Odom, Karan J.

AU - Salas, Macelo Araya

AU - Benedict, Lauryn

AU - Lim, Kristi

AU - Dale, James

AU - Webb, Wesley H.

AU - Sheard, Catherine

AU - Tobias, Joseph A.

AU - Ball, Gregory F.

AU - Hall, Michelle L.

AU - Langmore, Naomi E.

AU - Webster, Michael S.

AU - Riebel, Katharina

N1 - We thank Kevin Omland, Jordan Price, Eliot Miller, Conor Taff, Gavin Leighton, Russell Ligon, Irby Lovette, Victoria Austin, Anastasia Dalziell, Carel ten Cate, Hans Slabekoorn, and Judith Varkevisser for feedback and useful discussions that contributed to the design of this project. We thank Jillian Ditner and the Bartels Science Illustration Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for figure illustration.

PY - 2025/7/21

Y1 - 2025/7/21

N2 - Pronounced sexual dimorphism is generally assumed to evolve through sexual selection for elaborate male traits. However, there is increasing evidence that sexual dimorphism in traits such as birdsong may also evolve through loss of elaboration in females, but the evolutionary drivers underlying this process are obscure. Here we analyse ecological and natural history traits for over 1300 songbird species and show that increased female song incidence and elaboration are most directly associated with year-round territoriality, biparental care, and large body size. Phylogenetic path analysis indicates that mating system and breeding latitude primarily have indirect effects on female song evolution. Stable, tropical life histories and mating systems with biparental care promote female song, whereas evolutionary transitions to migration, reduced territoriality, and loss of male care led to losses or reductions of female song incidence. Our analyses provide a comprehensive framework for studying the drivers of sex differences and similarities in birdsong and reveal novel interactions among natural history and sexual selection pressures that have been hypothesized to independently shape elaborate traits.

AB - Pronounced sexual dimorphism is generally assumed to evolve through sexual selection for elaborate male traits. However, there is increasing evidence that sexual dimorphism in traits such as birdsong may also evolve through loss of elaboration in females, but the evolutionary drivers underlying this process are obscure. Here we analyse ecological and natural history traits for over 1300 songbird species and show that increased female song incidence and elaboration are most directly associated with year-round territoriality, biparental care, and large body size. Phylogenetic path analysis indicates that mating system and breeding latitude primarily have indirect effects on female song evolution. Stable, tropical life histories and mating systems with biparental care promote female song, whereas evolutionary transitions to migration, reduced territoriality, and loss of male care led to losses or reductions of female song incidence. Our analyses provide a comprehensive framework for studying the drivers of sex differences and similarities in birdsong and reveal novel interactions among natural history and sexual selection pressures that have been hypothesized to independently shape elaborate traits.

KW - Sexual selection

KW - Behavioural ecology

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-025-60810-5

DO - 10.1038/s41467-025-60810-5

M3 - Article

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 16

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 6157

ER -

Global incidence of female birdsong is predicted by territoriality and biparental care in songbirds

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this