Resonating feathers produce courtship song
Open accessAbstract
Male Club-winged Manakins, Machaeropterus deliciosus (Aves: Pipridae), produce a sustained tonal sound with specialized wing feathers. The fundamental frequency of the sound produced in nature is approximately 1500 Hz and is hypothesized to result from excitation of resonance in the feathers' hypertrophied shafts. We used laser Doppler vibrometry to determine the resonant properties of male Club-winged Manakin's wing feathers, as well as those of two unspecialized manakin species. The modified wing feathers exhibit a response peak near 1500 Hz, and unusually high Q-values (a measure of resonant tuning) for biological objects (Q up to 27). The unmodified wing feathers of the Club-winged Manakin do not exhibit strong resonant properties when measured in isolation. However, when measured still attached to the modified feathers (nine feathers held adjacent by an intact ligament), they resonate together as a unit near 1500 Hz, and the wing produces a second harmonic of similar or greater amplitude than the fundamental. The feathers of the control species also exhibit resonant peaks around 1500 Hz, but these are significantly weaker, the wing does not resonate as a unit and no harmonics are produced. These results lend critical support to the resonant stridulation hypothesis of sound production in M. deliciosus.
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The feathers that manakins use to sonate have Q > 10.
“whereas the feathers that manakins (family Pipridae) use to sonate have Q > 10 [27].”
From Biomechanics of the Peacock’s Display: How Feather Structure and Resonance Influence Multimodal Signaling (2016) · cites this paper as [27]
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- Authors
- Bostwick, K. S., Elias, D. O., Mason, A., & Montealegre-Z, F.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK
- Corresponding author
- Bostwick, Kimberly S.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2009-11-11
- Volume
- 277
- Issue
- 1683
- Pages
- 835-841
- ISSN
- 0080-4649 (ISSN-L)
- 0962-8452
- 1471-2954
- PMC
- PMC2842718
- OpenAlex
- W2125794946
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 1.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (F32GM076091)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology › Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Avian ecology and behavior
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Music Technology and Sound Studies
- Keywords
- Machaeropterus deliciosus, courtship song, wing feathers, Q-value, Pipridae, bird vocalizations
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animal Communication, Courtship, Feathers, Male, Vibration, Passeriformes
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