The Chick-a-Dee Call System of the Mexican Chickadee. Ficken, Millicent Sigler, Hailman, Elizabeth D., & Hailman, Jack P. The Condor, 96(1):70–82, Cooper Ornithological Society, 1994.
The Chick-a-Dee Call System of the Mexican Chickadee [link]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
Chick-a-dee calls of the Mexican Chickadee (Parus sclateri) are composed of combinations of three common note types (A, C and D) and one very rare type (B). Calls have the invariant sequence of notes A-B-C-D, where any note type may be omitted, given once or repeated a variable number of times before transiting to the next type. The B and C notes are phonologically similar to the B and C notes of chick-a-dee calls of the Black-capped Chickadee (P. atricapillus), but the A note is markedly different and the D note somewhat different from equivalent notes of the congener. A total of 2,071 calls recorded yielded 60 different call types, and Zipf-Mandelbrot plots show that the call system is "open"; as the sample size is increased new call types will be found without demonstrable bound. In relatively undisturbed contexts (with mate on territory, in fall flocks, alone in fall) birds gave mainly [A][D] calls with lesser numbers of [A] and [C] calls, where brackets indicate variable repetition of note types. In disturbed contexts (mobbing plastic Great Horned Owl, mobbing speaker playing calls of the Northern Pygmy-Owl, observer sitting under the nest cavity) the birds gave more [C] calls with [A][C] as well. In the longest mobbing session to owl calls, birds gave mainly [A] calls when approaching, switched to [C] calls while flying about the speaker, and then resumed [A] calls and moved off when the playback was stopped. Outside of human language, this is the second truly combinatorial system of vocal communication found in animals, the first being chick-a-dee calls of the Black-capped Chickadee. This study provides the first data substantiating quantitative differences in calls from different contexts, an important step toward understanding what kinds of information combinatorial chick-a-dee calls encode.
@Article{Ficken1994,
  author              = {{Ficken, Millicent Sigler} and {Hailman, Elizabeth D.} and {Hailman, Jack P.}},
  journal             = {The Condor},
  title               = {The Chick-a-Dee Call System of the Mexican Chickadee},
  year                = {1994},
  issn                = {0010-5422},
  number              = {1},
  pages               = {70--82},
  volume              = {96},
  abstract            = {Chick-a-dee calls of the Mexican Chickadee (Parus sclateri) are composed
	of combinations of three common note types (A, C and D) and one very
	rare type (B). Calls have the invariant sequence of notes A-B-C-D,
	where any note type may be omitted, given once or repeated a variable
	number of times before transiting to the next type. The B and C notes
	are phonologically similar to the B and C notes of chick-a-dee calls
	of the Black-capped Chickadee (P. atricapillus), but the A note is
	markedly different and the D note somewhat different from equivalent
	notes of the congener. A total of 2,071 calls recorded yielded 60
	different call types, and Zipf-Mandelbrot plots show that the call
	system is "open"; as the sample size is increased new call types
	will be found without demonstrable bound. In relatively undisturbed
	contexts (with mate on territory, in fall flocks, alone in fall)
	birds gave mainly [A][D] calls with lesser numbers of [A] and [C]
	calls, where brackets indicate variable repetition of note types.
	In disturbed contexts (mobbing plastic Great Horned Owl, mobbing
	speaker playing calls of the Northern Pygmy-Owl, observer sitting
	under the nest cavity) the birds gave more [C] calls with [A][C]
	as well. In the longest mobbing session to owl calls, birds gave
	mainly [A] calls when approaching, switched to [C] calls while flying
	about the speaker, and then resumed [A] calls and moved off when
	the playback was stopped. Outside of human language, this is the
	second truly combinatorial system of vocal communication found in
	animals, the first being chick-a-dee calls of the Black-capped Chickadee.
	This study provides the first data substantiating quantitative differences
	in calls from different contexts, an important step toward understanding
	what kinds of information combinatorial chick-a-dee calls encode.},
  copyright           = {Copyright 1994 Cooper Ornithological Society},
  jstor_articletype   = {Full Length Article},
  jstor_date          = {199402},
  jstor_formatteddate = {Feb., 1994},
  keywords            = {Parus sclateri, Mexican Chickadee, Vocalizations, Calls, Syntax, Mobbing, Flocks},
  publisher           = {Cooper Ornithological Society},
  url                 = {http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-5422%28199402%2996%3A1%3C70%3ATCCSOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1},
}
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