Social information gathered by observing others often supplements personal information collected from direct interactions with the physical environment during decision-making. Social information use may be particularly beneficial in harsh environments or if resources are distributed patchily, ephemeral, and unpredictable, and hence difficult to locate. We experimentally tested the use of acoustic cues in wild zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) as they flew around their arid habitat as a way of locating conspecifics on the ground, and potentially accessing useful social information. Joining a conspecific group may reduce the predation risk, and if they are foraging may also improve foraging efficiency, as the distribution of zebra finch food (grass seed) is scattered and unpredictable in their natural habitat, the Australian arid zone. We conducted playback experiments along vegetated creek lines radiating out from an artificial dam where all birds in the population were coming for drinking water. We broadcast recordings of vocalizations from foraging conspecific groups to birds using these creek lines to move to or from the water into the wider habitat. Zebra finches were more likely to land near the loudspeaker when conspecific vocalizations were broadcast compared to white noise. Birds flying low and close to the loudspeaker were most likely to land. Our results indicate that zebra finches use acoustic cues of conspecifics as a source of social information for grouping decisions. Use of such information may also enhance foraging efficiency in environments with unpredictable and scarce foraging locations, and reduce predation risk for calling and responding individuals.

中文翻译：

---

野生斑胸草雀被同种社会群体的声音线索所吸引

通过观察他人收集的社会信息通常会补充在决策过程中从与物理环境的直接交互中收集的个人信息。社交信息的使用在恶劣的环境中或如果资源分布不均匀、短暂且不可预测且因此难以定位时可能特别有益。我们在野生斑胸草雀 (Taeniopygia guttata) 中通过实验测试了声学线索的使用，因为它们在干旱的栖息地周围飞行，作为在地面上定位同种生物的一种方式，并可能获取有用的社会信息。加入同一个群体可能会降低捕食风险，如果它们正在觅食，也可能会提高觅食效率，因为斑胸草雀食物（草籽）的分布在其自然栖息地澳大利亚干旱区是分散且不可预测的。我们沿着从人工水坝辐射出来的植被小溪线进行了回放实验，人口中的所有鸟类都来这里喝水。我们播放从觅食同种群体到鸟类的发声录音，这些鸟类使用这些小溪线移动到水中或从水中移动到更广泛的栖息地。与白噪声相比，当广播特定的发声时，斑胸草雀更有可能降落在扬声器附近。飞得低且靠近扬声器的鸟儿最有可能降落。我们的研究结果表明，斑胸草雀使用同种动物的声学线索作为群体决策的社会信息来源。使用此类信息还可以提高觅食位置不可预测和稀缺的环境中的觅食效率，并降低呼叫和响应个体的捕食风险。