Meghana Srivathsa
Research Subjects
Research Interests
Meghana Srivathsa has a total of 3 co-authors. Here are the top co-authors by number of shared publications:
- Laurel B. Symes
K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA
1 shared publication - Pavithra Sundar
Project Dhvani
1 shared publication - Vijay Ramesh
Center for Avian Population Studies Cornell Lab of Ornithology Ithaca New York USA
1 shared publication
Latest Publications
- 12 June 2025
- Published by The Royal Society in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Vol. 380 (1928) , 20240054
Why is the early bird early? An evaluation of hypotheses for avian dawn-biased vocal activity
Bird species vary widely in their diurnal vocalization patterns, and the drivers of this variation are not well understood. Using passive acoustic monitoring, we examined species-specific vocal activity patterns at dawn and dusk for a tropical bird community in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India. We tested whether environmental factors (e.g. signal transmission conditions, ambient light, and resource availability) and social factors (e.g. territoriality) best-explained patterns of diurnal variation in vocal activity. Overall, we found that species-specific vocal activity was significantly higher at dawn ( p < 0.05). Phylogenetic generalized least squares regressions revealed that territoriality and diet both predicted stronger dawn-biased activity. Specifically, highly territorial birds (standardized effect size (SES) = 1.20, lower donfidence interval (LCI)= 0.24, upper confidence interval (UCI) = 2.16, p = 0.01) and omnivores (SES = 0.82, LCI = −0.04, UCI = 1.68, p = 0.06) had higher levels of vocal activity at dawn. Surprisingly, we failed to find any evidence in support of environmental factors in explaining dawn-biased vocal activity. Our multi-taxon approach allowed us to assess the vocal activity patterns for an entire tropical bird community. Future research must incorporate additional geographic locations and combine visual and aural observations to better understand the drivers of diurnal variation in vocal activity. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Acoustic monitoring for tropical ecology and conservation’.
- 12 June 2025
- Published by The Royal Society in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Vol. 380 (1928) , 20240054
Why is the early bird early? An evaluation of hypotheses for avian dawn-biased vocal activity
Bird species vary widely in their diurnal vocalization patterns, and the drivers of this variation are not well understood. Using passive acoustic monitoring, we examined species-specific vocal activity patterns at dawn and dusk for a tropical bird community in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India. We tested whether environmental factors (e.g. signal transmission conditions, ambient light, and resource availability) and social factors (e.g. territoriality) best-explained patterns of diurnal variation in vocal activity. Overall, we found that species-specific vocal activity was significantly higher at dawn ( p < 0.05). Phylogenetic generalized least squares regressions revealed that territoriality and diet both predicted stronger dawn-biased activity. Specifically, highly territorial birds (standardized effect size (SES) = 1.20, lower donfidence interval (LCI)= 0.24, upper confidence interval (UCI) = 2.16, p = 0.01) and omnivores (SES = 0.82, LCI = −0.04, UCI = 1.68, p = 0.06) had higher levels of vocal activity at dawn. Surprisingly, we failed to find any evidence in support of environmental factors in explaining dawn-biased vocal activity. Our multi-taxon approach allowed us to assess the vocal activity patterns for an entire tropical bird community. Future research must incorporate additional geographic locations and combine visual and aural observations to better understand the drivers of diurnal variation in vocal activity. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Acoustic monitoring for tropical ecology and conservation’.