How robins find worms

Article Abstract:

The ability of captive American robins (Turdus migratorius) to use auditory, olfactory and vibrotactile cues, in addition to visual cues, was examined. In four controlled experiments, the robins were able to locate buried mealworms even without visual, olfactory and vibrotactile signals. The results indicated that robins can find worms using auditory clues. It was also found that impaired auditory cues lessened the foraging success of the birds. These findings contradict earlier results suggesting that robins rely exclusively on visual cues to locate their prey.

Food and nutrition, Predation (Biology), Robins, Perception in animals, Animal perception

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Avian dependence on sound pressure level as an auditory distance cue

Article Abstract:

Eastern towhees, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, seem to assess auditory distance partly from the difference between perceived sound pressure level (SPL) and source SPL, established from spectrotemporal variables. Use of SPL as an auditory distance cue, in spite of considerable variation in source SPL, shows that the towhee recognizes and focuses on at least one described link between spectrotemporal variables and SPL. It is suggested that redundancy in acoustically more complex 'song' should permit a more refined estimation of source SPL.

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Accuracy of auditory distance and azimuth perception by a passerine bird in natural habitat

Article Abstract:

The accuracy of sound localization was studied in males of the eastern towhee, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, living in the Lake Wales Ridge of central Florida via an open-loop phonotaxis experiment. The average auditory distance resolution obtained was 7% of the total speaker distance, while the average azimuth resolution was +/- 5 degrees. When perch discontinuity correction was not considered, the worst-case estimate for the towhee's abilities deviates by 8.7 degrees.

Behavior, Passeriformes, Perching birds, Directional hearing, Sound localization

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