Land or lover? Territorial defence and mutual mate guarding in the crimson-breasted shrike

Crimson-breasted shrikes produce duets which are used in interactions with neighbours and intruders. We examined two major hypotheses explaining duetting, the territorial defence and mate guarding hypotheses, using playback experiments. The responses of 12 pairs towards solo male, solo female and stereo duet playback were analysed using principal component analysis and ANOVA. The measures of response intensity revealed in most cases highly coordinated responses of the pair partners. Although these joint responses could suggest cooperative territorial defence or mutual mate defence, responses to the treatments differed between males and females in terms of three variables. Females increased their answer rates significantly in response to unpaired female intruders, compared to unpaired male intruders. During duet playback, females directed their responses equally at both intruding pair members. In contrast, males were equally responsive towards unpaired male intruders and intruding pairs, but in the latter case directed their responses at the male pair member. In the presence of unpaired female intruders, males increased their solo song rates, but in the presence of intruding pairs, they increased overlapping rates and duetted with their mates. These divergent responses suggest that females use duets for mate guarding against unpaired females, whereas males use solo songs for mate guarding and both solos and duets in territorial defence.