Discrimination Of Predator And Non-Predator In The Yellow-Rumped Flycatcher (Ficedula Zanthopygia): Based On Behavioral Response

Predation is the main cause of death of most animals in nature,and it is the most important natural selection pressure to drive the evolution of prey defense behavior.The prerequisite for the prey to implement effective defense is to identify predator and non-predator,and distinguish the type of predator to assess the threat level,and then take corresponding countermeasures.Birds mainly rely on visual and auditory signals to identify predator and non-predator,but related research mainly focuses on visual signal recognition,while research on sound recognition is rather less.In addition,it is unclear whether birds can distinguish between different predators,and the defensive countermeasures against different types of predation risks need to be further explored.From March to July of 2017-2018,the author selected the Zuojia Nature Reserve in Jilin Province as the research area,and recruited yellow-rumped flycatcher(Ficedula zanthopygia)by hanging artificial nest boxes.The research adopted the method of sound playback and specimen experiment along with behavior observation.Main research is as follows: 1)reaction to sympatric and non-sympatric non-predators with different shapes;2)reaction to predator and non-predator sounds of squab;3)reaction and alarm sound to different predators;4)reaction to different alarm sound from parents of squab.There was no significant difference in responses of yellow-rumped flycatcher among 4 sympatric species(predator sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus and three species of non-predator,oriental turtle-dove Streptopelia orientalis,grey-backed thrush Turdus hortulorum,and long-tailed tit Aegithalos caudatus).There was no significant difference in entering the nest,fake attack and attack behaviors of yellow-rumped flycatcher to the non-sympatric predator and non-predator,but the closest distance to the non-sympatric predator(black baza Aviceda leuphotes)was significantly larger than to three non-predators with different body size(grey treepie Dendrocitta formosae,light-vented bulbul Pycnonotus sinensis and red-billed leiothrix Leiothrix lutea).There was no significant difference in the response behaviors to sympatric and non-sympatric predators.When facing non-sympatric non-predator,yellow-rumped flycatcher showed more entering the nest,fake attack and attack behaviors with closer distance.However,defense strength was not affected by body size.The sound playback experiment showed that response behaviors of female yellow-rumped flycatcher when they heard the sound of female common cuckoo Cuculus canorus(simulating the sound of sparrowhawk)was similar to that of sparrowhawk outside the nest,which indicated that female yellow-rumped flycatcher couldn't assess threat level of these two.However,compared with oriental turtle-dove,yellow-rumped flycatcher tended to fly away from nest faster when hearing the sound of sparrowhawk and female common cuckoo,which indicated that it could distinguish the risk of oriental turtle-dove from sparrowhawk and common cuckoo according to the sound.The aggression of yellow-rumped flycatcher against siberian chipmunk Tamias sibiricus(threatening offspring)was significantly stronger than that of common kestrel Falco tinnunculus(threatening itself),and there was a significant difference between the alarm calls and the threat information transmitted.The results showed that the alarm calls of parents could transmit different danger information,and the offspring who were leaving the nest could obtain the threat information through the alarm calls.