Dr. Patrick Hart
Dr. Kristina Paxton
Dr. Esther Sebastian-Gonzalez
Ann Tanimoto-Johnson
Lisa Mason
Robert Justice III
How do the characteristics of bird song change over time, especially as bird populations decrease? Is there less potential for learning complex social behaviors as population sizes becomes smaller, and if so, is this an additional negative effect of population decline? We have examined aspects of these questions for the declining populations of honeycreepers on Kauai, as well as for the ‘Alalā, or native Hawaiian crow. Current grad students are addressing similar questions with other Hawaiian bird species. Please see the “publications” section of this website for links to relevant manuscripts, including:
- Paxton et al. 2019. Loss of cultural song diversity and the convergence of songs in a declining Hawaiian forest bird community. Royal Society Open Science 6: 190719.
- Tanimoto et al. 2017. Changes in the vocal repertoire of the Hawaiian crow (Corvus hawaiiensis) from past wild to current captive populations. Animal Behaviour 123: 427-432.
- Tanimoto et al. 2017. Vocal repertoire and signal characteristics of the ‘alalā, the Hawaiian crow (Corvus hawaiiensis)
