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1. Vocal Complexity and Social Networks in Monk Parrots
Does the need to navigate a complex social life drive a corresponding increase in vocal complexity? If so, how does this exhibit, in vocal diversity or repertoire size? In collaboration with Dr Juan Carlos Senar and Dr Mary Brooke McElreath, we investigated these question in a wild population of monk parakeets in central Barcelona. Monk parakeets build communal stick nests that are also often clumped in small colonies, but forage in fission-fusion flocks. This leads to a potentially fascinating multi-level social dynamic. Dr Senar's population of monk parakeets is individually tagged, providing a unique opportunity to explore what consequences this social system for individual variation in vocalisations.
See our published papers on the topic:
Smeele, Senar, McElreath & Aplin, L. M (2025). The effect of social structure on vocal flexibility in monk parakeets. Royal Society Open Science
Smeele, Senar, Aplin, & McElreath (2023). Evidence for vocal signatures and voice-prints in a wild parrot. Royal Society Open Science
Smeele, Tyndel, Aplin, & McElreath (2024). Multilevel Bayesian analysis of monk parakeet contact calls shows dialects between European cities. Behavioral Ecology
Tagged monk parakeet engaging in an affiliative social interaction (preening)
Aviary cockatiels with barcode backpacks
2) How to balance the need for individual recognisability and signalling of group membership?
Do parrots use calls to signal group membership? If so, how do they balance the need for distinctiveness with the need for conformity? We are manipulating group composition in captive groups of cockatiels to test hypotheses related to the the formation and maintenance of dialects in parrots. In these experiments, we continuous tracking both social networks and vocalisations using barcoded microphone backpacks.
See our published papers on the topic:
Smeele, Tyndel, Klump, Alarcón‐Nieto & Aplin (2024). callsync: An R package for alignment and analysis of multi‐microphone animal recordings. Ecology and Evolution
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