Fig. 1.

Variation in the song versatility of the Tropical Mockingbird. The typical song sequences in our population have high within-song versatility (song complexity) and high between-song versatility (switching rate) (a). Occasionally, males become more repetitive at the within-song and between-song level (b). Both sequences were recorded from the same male Tropical Mockingbird within a period of 30 min. New syllable types have been underlined as they are introduced for the first time. A typical courtship solo of a Northern Mockingbird (c) is also shown for comparison.