DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xcj
title: Female audience shapes the complexity and syntax of male courtship displays in a lek-mating bird

description: Courtship displays of lek-mating Golden-winged Manakins (Masius
 chrysopterus) are context-dependent. Presence or absence of a female
 audience, and female behavior, more than male identity, determines
 variation in the constituent elements (repertoire) and ordering (syntax)
 of displays. We analyzed 422 display videos in three contexts: displays
 without audiences (SOLO, n = 307), displays for female audiences that did
 not end in copulation (AUDI, n = 102), and displays ending with
 copulations (COP, n = 13). Using entropy and a metric we call
 compressibility (ratio of compressed to uncompressed display strings), we
 found that ordering of elements (syntax) decreased in complexity from SOLO
 to AUDI to COP displays. Jaro string distance, a record-linkage metric for
 assessing string similarity, showed that display string syntax
 corresponded more to audience context than to performer identity. COP
 displays of individual males differed more from their own AUDI or SOLO
 displays than from the COP displays of other males. Males responded to
 female behavior—her position upslope or downslope from him on the display
 log—with simple COP displays. Courtship displays of Golden-winged Manakins
 are dynamic interactions between female and male, depending more on male
 response to female audience behavior, than on traits intrinsic to
 particular males.
description: # Female audience shapes the complexity and syntax of male courtship
 displays in a lek-mating bird This README.txt file was updated on 16
 December 2024 by L.U.T. ## A. Paper associated with this archive Female
 audience shapes the complexity and syntax of male courtship displays in a
 lek-mating bird ## B. Originators David McDonald, University of Wyoming
 Liam Taylor, Bowdoin College Nicholas Oakley, Missouri Department of
 Conservation ## C. Contact information Liam U. Taylor Department of
 Biology, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME 04011, United States
 [l.taylor@bowdoin.edu](mailto:l.taylor@bowdoin.edu) ## D. Dates of data
 collection 2015-2016 (December, June-August) 2017 (September-December) ##
 E. Geographic Location(s) of data collection Milpe Bird Sanctuary, Ecuador
 (~0°1’48” N, 78°57’12” W) ## F. Funding Sources National Science
 Foundation GRFP (#DGE1752134) for L.U.T. #### ACCESS INFORMATION **1.
 Licenses/restrictions placed on the data or code** Dryad data and files:
 CC0 waiver.. Zenodo software files: MIT license. **2. Data derived from
 other sources** N/A **3. Recommended citation for this data/code archive**
 McDonald, David; Taylor, Liam; Oakley, Nicholas (Forthcoming 2024). Female
 audience shapes the complexity and syntax of male courtship displays in a
 lek-mating bird [Dataset]. Dryad.
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xcj](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xcj) **DATA & CODE FILE OVERVIEW** This repository contains all data and code necessary to generate results and figures for the manuscript, "Female audience shapes the complexity and syntax of male courtship displays in a lek-mating bird." This study analyzes the repertoire and syntax of courtship displays in a tropical lekking bird, the Golden-winged Manakin (Masius chrysopterus). By representing displays as strings of individual behavioral elements, we quantify the complexity of these displays and directly compare the syntax of displays from the same males, or different males, across three display contexts: SOLO (male-only displays), AUDI (displays for a female audience), and COP (displays for a female audience that end in copulation). **Data files and variables** **data_raw_2024-12-05.csv** (Each row is an individual behavioral element, a component of an overall display, output from BORIS [https://www.boris.unito.it/](https://www.boris.unito.it/)) | Column | Datatype | Description | | :------------ | :------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | UID | (chr) | Unique ID for the display | | Log | (chr) | The display log (territory) where the display took place | | Observer | (chr) | Initials of the observer who transcribed display elements | | Time | (dbl) | Video timestamp of the behavioral element (note decimal precision constrained by BORIS software) | | Male1ID | (dbl) | Identification for primary displaying male bird | | FemID | (dbl) | Identification for primary female audience (if present) | | Bird2ID | (dbl) | Identification for an additional bird, male or female (if present) | | FemOnOff | (chr) | Tag for female audience ON (="Fem On Log") or OFF (="Fem Off Log") log during display element | | FemUpDown | (chr) | Tag for female UP (="FemUp") or down (="FemDown") on the log, if the female is ON the log during a display element | | Behavior | (chr) | Category of behavioral element | | MaleOtherBeh1 | (chr) | Additional specification for "Other" behaviors | **data_banding.csv** (Each row is the band identification information for an individual bird) | Column | Datatype | Description | | :---------- | :------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Bands | (chr) | Field-readable color band combination | | Alum# | (chr) | Suffix to unique aluminum band number | | Date Banded | (chr) | The date the bird was banded (dd-mm-yy) | | Sex | (chr) | Observed sex of the bird when banded, based on plumage, male (="M"), female (="F"), or unknown (="Unk") | | Age | (chr) | Observed age of the bird when banded, based on plumage, green (="G") or definitive (="Def") | **dictionary_behaviors.r** (R dictionaries for behavioral element abbreviations and filtering) | Vector | Description | | :----------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | behaviors\_cut\_partial | elements to cut because they represent just part of a behavioral element | | behaviors\_cut\_movement | elements to cut because they represent movement tracking data only | | behaviors\_cut\_tracking | elements to cut because they are used for meta tracking only | | behaviors\_cut\_other | elements to cut because they do not directly constitute dance display behaviors | | behavior\_short | abbreviated (3-4 chars) names for BORIS display elements | | behavior\_code | single-character codes for display elements | **Code scripts and workflow** Place the data in a Data/ directory. Place the four numbered .r scripts in a Scripts/ directory. Execute run.r in the main directory. 0_logistics.r (set runtime variables, file paths, load packages) 1_parse_data.r (prepare dataset from individual behavioral element records) 2_analyze.r (calculate display characteristics and write analysis report file) 3_plot.r (generate all figures and tables) #### SOFTWARE VERSIONS | Software | Version | | ---------- | ------- | | R | 4.4.1 | | tidyverse | 2.0.0 | | lubridate | 1.9.3 | | acss | 0.2.5 | | brotli | 1.3.0 | | stringdist | 0.9.12 | | patchwork | 1.2.0 | **MOTION DETECTION SOFTWARE** Masius_Movement.zip contains the files for the video motion-detection program used to flag clips featuring bird displays from the full, day-long video recordings taken in the field. The unzipped folder contains its own README with execution instructions and file descriptions. The motion detection program program is built to run in Python 2.7.12 using OpenCV 3.3.0-dev. Motion segments are flagged from the full video file. The user can then manually confirm the clips, downloading them for subsequent behavioral coding with BORIS software. The annotated, post-BORIS data is already provided in this repository -- the motion detection software is provided for reference, and is not needed to replicate the results of the manuscript. These files are drawn from GitHub ([https://github.com/ltaylor2/Masius_Movement](https://github.com/ltaylor2/Masius_Movement)). **EXAMPLE FOOTAGE** Display_Footage_Examples.zip contains a sample of 17 displays from our dataset, including displays performed alone (SOLO), displays for a female audience (AUDI), and displays for a female audience that end in a copulation (COP). Filenames are given as "Display__.mp4", where UID corresponds to the unique display identifier in our dataset. All footage in .mp4 video format.