DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0zpc8679q
title: Data from: The effects of age on vocal mimicry in female superb lyrebirds

description: The study of vocal mimicry in birds has been largely dominated by
 male-focused sexual selection theory. Despite this, females of many
 species demonstrate remarkable mimetic abilities that cannot be explained
 by these conventional male-centric frameworks. We analysed vocal
 recordings from nesting female superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae)
 to examine age-related patterns in mimetic behaviour during a female
 specific ecological context: nest defence. Our dataset includes
 annotations from the 10-minute recordings from individual females of known
 age, with a subset of six females recorded across multiple years. We
 classified vocal elements into three categories: mimicry of heterospecific
 sounds, conspecific vocalisations, and ambiguous elements which were
 assumed to be mimicry production errors. For mimetic elements, we
 identified the model species and sound type and categorised models as
 predators versus non-predators. We constructed repertoire accumulation
 curves to validate our 10-minute sampling protocol. We used linear mixed
 models (LMM) and generalised linear mixed models (GLMM) to analyse
 relationships between female age and various aspects of vocal behaviour,
 including total element production, mimetic diversity, time spent
 vocalising, and predator mimicry proportions. Additional analyses examined
 potential confounding factors including testing for habituation and the
 effects of time of breeding. Our data reveals high individual variation in
 mimetic behaviour, with no age effects on overall mimicry propensity or
 diversity. However, older females are more likely to mimic predators
 during nest defence than younger females.  There are two main
 implications of these findings. First, age-related factors are unlikely to
 account for individual variation in female mimetic repertoires. Second,
 females may refine their vocal mimicry with age, selectively retaining
 models that offer the greatest defensive advantage during nest defence.
description: # **Read Me** Paper title: The effect of age on vocal mimicry in female
 superb lyrebirds Submitted Journal: Avian Biology DOI 10.1002/jav.03520
 About: This file pertains to the data associated with the above paper. 
 The master data for this project is “song_2025_final.csv”. All data and
 analysis derives from these data Due to the length of code, there are five
 separate R files with analysis code. They and the associated data are
 labelled as follows: 1\. File One_The effect of age on vocal mimicry in
 female superb lyrebirds_female quality: data = 2025_Banding exposure
 summary data_final.csv 2\. File two_The effect of age on vocal mimicry in
 female superb lyrebirds_Repertoire accumulation curve: data =
 FSB_mim_final 3\. File three_The effect of age on vocal mimicry in female
 superb lyrebirds_Predators: data = song_2025_final.csv 4\. File four_The
 effect of age on mimicry in female superb lyrebirds_Mimicry and age: data
 = three_element_count_final.csv 5\. File five_The effect of age on vocal
 mimicry in female superb lyrebirds_Time singing and element duration: data
 = song_2025_final.csv ### Data structure “song_2025_final.csv” Each line
 corresponds to a single element that was measured. Quality of recordings
 was not sufficient to measure accuracy of mimicry. * bird.id (colour
 bands) = unique colour code of bands of individual birds. Each capital
 letter corresponds to a unique colour using the first letter of that
 colour. Lower case letters further differentiate between colours e.g., Dg
 = Dark green (See end of read me file for complete list) * bird.age
 (years) = age of birds at time of recording in years * year.recorded = the
 calendar year the recording was taken * Begin.Time..s.: begin time of
 element in seconds * End.Time..s.: end time of element in seconds *
 Begin.File: Recording name for which data is derived * Delta.Time..s.:
 Delta time in seconds * Dur.90…s.: 90% of the duration of an element in
 seconds * vocalisation = the vocalisation type, either “l” for lyrebird or
 “m” for mimicry * vocalisation_three_categories = the vocalisation type
 broken down further into three categories, either conspecific, mimicry or
 ambiguous * mimicry.id = the species being mimicked. Where NA is present,
 no species is recorded e.g., corresponds with conspecific vocals *
 call.type = the category of vocalisation e.g., one species may have
 multiple call types such magpie A, magpie B etc. “Unknown” means the
 vocalisation could not be identified. * confidence = confidence in ID of
 mimicry, “c” = confident, “nc” = non confident and translates to ambiguous
 elements * vocal.type = simplified version of call type e.g., all lyrebird
 vocalisations are listed as lyrebird instead of subcategories *
 predator_non predator = category of mimicked model as either a predator
 (p) or non predator (n) (converted to 0 and 1 in r). Blank spaces in this
 column correspond to conspecific vocalisations meaning they were not
 categorised ### Data structure “FSB_mim_final.csv” each line corresponds
 to a single element that was measured * Selection: spectrogram selection
 number * Begin.Time..s.: begin time of element in seconds * End.Time..s.:
 end time of element in seconds * Low.Freq..Hz: lowest frequency
 measurement of the element in Hz * High.Freq..Hz.: highest frequency
 measurement of the element in Hz * Begin.File: Recording name for which
 data is derived * Species: the species mimicked * Vocalisation: the type
 of vocalisation mimicked e.g.,  one species may have multiple call types
 such magpie A, magpie B etc * bird.id (colour bands) = unique colour band
 code of individual birds. Each capital letter corresponds to a unique
 colour using the first letter of that colour. Lower case letters further
 differentiate between colours e.g., Dg = Dark green (See end of read me
 file for complete list) ### Data structure “2025_Banding exposure summary
 data_final.csv” each line corresponds to a single banding/recording event
 for each female * bird.id (colour bands) = unique colour band code of
 individual birds. Each capital letter corresponds to a unique colour using
 the first letter of that colour. Lower case letters further differentiate
 between colours e.g., Dg = Dark green (See end of read me file for
 complete list) * bird.age (years) = age of birds at time of recording in
 years * year.recorded = the calendar year the female’s chick was banded
 and recorded * Length (seconds) = total time spent vocalising in recording
 in seconds (based on element length) * Total.Sound.duration (seconds) =
 total time spent mimicking in recording in seconds (based on element
 length) * Ave.duration (seconds) = average duration of each individual
 element of mimicry in seconds * banded = whether the bird had experienced
 banding of chick before - y = yes, n = no * num.species.mim = number of
 species mimicked * call.diversity = number of different kinds of mimetic
 elements e.g., a female may mimic multiple calls from one species e.g.,
 magpie A and magpie B * chicks.banded = number of chicks the female had
 had banded in her lifetime (1 corresponds with “n” in the “banded” column)
 * julian.day = year and day of the year that the chick was banded (proxy
 for chick age as all chicks were banded at approximately the same time) *
 julian.singular = Julian date just by day of year (proxy for chick age as
 all chicks were banded at approximately the same time) ### Data structure
 “three_element_count_final.csv” * three.categories = the vocalisation type
 broken down further into three categories, either conspecific, mimicry or
 ambiguous * bird.age (years) = age of birds at time of recording in years
 * bird.id (colour bands)= unique colour band code of individual birds.
 Each capital letter corresponds to a unique colour using the first letter
 of that colour. Lower case letters further differentiate between colours
 e.g., Dg = Dark green (See end of read me file for complete list *
 year.recorded =  the calendar year the recording was taken * elementcount
 = a count of the number of elements produced for each category
 (corresponding to the three.categories column) **Notes** Where NA is
 present, no species is recorded e.g., corresponds with conspecific vocals
 Where columns are blank, no data is recorded Bird ID: colour bands labels
 for each individual female * BWW = Blue White White * DgBR = Dark green,
 Blue, Red * DgDgY = Dark green, Dark green, Yellow * DgWW = Dark green,
 White, White * DgYDg = Dark green, Yellow, Dark green * DgYR = Dark green,
 Yellow, Red * GGW = Green, Green, White * LbYLb = Light blue, Yellow,
 Light blue * RRR = Red, Red, Red * RYDg = Red, Yellow, Dark green * YYY =
 Yellow, Yellow, Yellow * YBB = Yellow, Blue, Blue * YBR = Yellow, Blue,
 Red * YbYLb = Yellow brown, Yellow, Light blue * YDgB = Yellow, Dark
 green, Blue * YYR = Yellow, Yellow, Red