Temporal regularities of vocal exchange in Java sparrows

Abstract

In human turn-taking, speakers alternate at very short intervals while avoiding overlaps. If speakers do not receive a vocal response from another party, they often repeat their utterance after the expected response time has elapsed to elicit a reply. Intra-individual intervals tend to be longer than inter-individual intervals. Such temporal regularity in vocal exchanges has also been observed in social mammals, such as non-human primates. In contrast, vocal exchanges in birds have been studied primarily in the context of songs, with limited research on call-based vocal exchanges. Studies specifically examining intra-individual call intervals are even scarcer. In this study, we investigated vocal exchanges and their temporal patterns in Java sparrows placed face-to-face. The results revealed that they vocalized at very short intervals following the calls of the other individual. However, no significant differences were observed between the inter- and intra-individual intervals. This contrasts with the temporal characteristics of vocal exchanges observed in social mammals that have been studied to date. We propose that a possible explanation for this difference lies in the variation in social group structures between birds and mammals.