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Habitat Structure and Local Bird Richness Were More Closely Linked to Marsh Warbler Numbers Than Playback

Marsh Warbler among green vegetation
Research · Behaviour

A field experiment in western Poland tested whether marsh warblers (Acrocephalus palustris) use the songs of other bird species as social information when selecting breeding territories. The study was posted as a Research Square preprint on 9 July 2026 after a large-scale quasi-experiment in an agricultural landscape and has not yet undergone peer review. In a quasi-experiment, researchers manipulate a treatment, but the study groups are not necessarily balanced or randomly assigned in the same way as in a fully randomised experiment.

From 11 to 20 May 2021, the researchers broadcast heterospecific song from loudspeakers in selected study plots. The playback contained five bird species that had not been recorded in the plots during earlier surveys, creating an experimental increase in the acoustic diversity available to arriving marsh warblers. Other plots served as controls.

An initial comparison suggested that marsh warbler numbers remained higher relative to the pre-treatment season in plots receiving heterospecific social information, while numbers declined in the controls. However, the birds had not been distributed evenly among plots before the experiment. Once the researchers accounted for this starting difference, the analysis no longer gave clear support for an independent playback effect.

Instead, marsh warbler abundance showed a clear association with habitat structure and the local richness of other bird species. The authors link this result to the species’ unusual vocal behaviour: male marsh warblers incorporate extensive imitations of other species into their songs, so a diverse local bird community can also provide a richer source of acoustic material.

Sources and image credit

  1. Pustkowiak, S., Kwieciński, Z., & Skórka, P. (2026). Biodiversity as the source of heterospecific social information: The effect on territory selection in the marsh warbler [Preprint]. Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-10045494/v1Primary 2026 preprint. A large-scale field quasi-experiment in western Poland broadcast songs of five bird species not previously recorded in the study plots. After accounting for the marsh warblers’ uneven pre-experiment distribution, the apparent playback effect on abundance was statistically non-significant; abundance was clearly associated with habitat structure and local species richness.

Image: Ivan Vezenković / Wikimedia Commons — live marsh warbler at Dragojloviće, Sjenica, Serbia, 18 May 2024; representative species image, not from the western Poland experiment · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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