Repertoire sharing and song-post distance in nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos B.)

Summary The relationship was studied between song-post distances and the extent of vocal repertoire sharing in 34 territorial nightingales settling in six homogeneously structured habitats. Repertoires were compared on the basis of shared song types and distances were measured between nocturnal song posts of first-order and higher-order neighbours. Our results showed that male nightingales shared fewer song types with very close and more distant neighbours than with neighbours at intermediate distances. This distribution is explained by the interaction betwee repelling and attracting components, which depends on the distance between song posts.