BIRD VOCALIZATIONS: PERFORMANCE & FUNCTION
The vocalizations of birds are wonderfully diverse, not only across species but also within species, populations, and individuals. One major focus of our work has been to ask how the structure of songs, as expressed in learning and over evolutionary time, can be shaped by birds' vocal performance capacities -- that is, by how well birds are able to produce different types of vocal patterns. In species of songbirds in New England, we have been characterizing variation in song associated with vocal performance, and conducting tests on the function of these variations, using song learning, song playback, and natural history paradigms.
A new project in the lab focuses on chipping sparrows on the UMass Amherst campus, as a follow-up to research from lab alum Sarah Goodwin. Our data collection is being powered by a talented team of UMass students; we are collecting data through many pairs of eyes and ears supplemented by GIS data and song recordings, including through Automated Recording Units we are placing around campus.
Representative publications:
• Schroeder, K. M., Podos, J. (2025). Correlated divergence of ecology, morphology, and fine-scale vocal motor performance among sparrow subspecies. Behavioral Ecology 36.
• Schroeder, K. M., Podos, J. (2023). Early exposure to songs of another subspecies enhances song discrimination in wild sparrow nestlings. Animal Behaviour 203: 123-132.
• Podos, J & Sung, H-C. (2020). Vocal Performance in Songbirds: From mechanisms to evolution. Sakata, J., Woolley, S., and Popp, A. (Eds). The Neuroethology of Birdsong: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, Volume 63, Springer Press, pp. 245-268
• Podos, J, Moseley, DL, Goodwin, SE, McClure, J, Taft, BN, Strauss, AVH, Rega-Brodsky, C, & Lahti, DC. (2016). A fine-scale, broadly applicable index of vocal performance: frequency excursion. Animal Behaviour 116:203-212
• Goodwin, SE & Podos, J. (2014). Team of rivals: alliance formation in territorial songbirds is predicted by vocal signal structure. Biology Letters 10:20131083.
• Moseley, D, Lahti, D, & Podos, J. (2013). Responses to song playback vary with vocal performance of both signal senders and receivers. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280:20131401.