Song Parts Adapted to Function Both at Long and Short Ranges May Communicate Information about the Species to Female Blackbirds Turdus merula

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Abstract
Blackbird females were hand-raised in the laboratory and made receptive to song stimulation by long-day conditions and estradiol injections. Playback experiments in an anechoic chamber comparing responses of the females to differenet conspecific songs and songs of foreign species indicate that females gain information about species identity from the conspecific songs. Not only the complete songs seems to have a role in species recognition, but also each of its two components, the long-ranging motif part and the short-ranging twitter part, the latter suggesting an adaptation to a life in dense vegetation.