The ontogeny of vocal identity in carrion crows (Corvus corone)

TL;DR

This study shows that young crows develop unique vocal identities early in life, which help them recognize each other.

Contribution

The study reveals how vocal individuality in crows develops early and is encoded by consistent acoustic features.

Findings

Vocal individuality in crows is present from an early age and is encoded by consistent acoustic parameters.

Vocal dissimilarity between individuals increases over time, but the pattern varies depending on the context.

The development of vocal identity is dynamic and linked to social development in crows.

Abstract

For social species, the ability to identify individual group members is crucial. Vocalizations often carry individual signatures that can serve as cues for the caller’s identity. However, it is still unclear how consistent these signatures are and how early they develop. Here, we investigate the development of vocal individuality in hand-raised carrion crows. Over the course of four weeks, spanning both the nestling and fledgling stage, we recorded vocalisations of known individuals across various behavioural contexts. We show that vocal individuality is present early on and is encoded by several acoustic parameters whose importance remains consistent as the birds age. Additionally, while vocal dissimilarity between individuals generally increased over time, the pattern of change varied across contexts. Our findings highlight the dynamic nature of vocal individuality coding during early life and provide new insights into the relationship between vocal and social development in corvids.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10071-025-02021-5.

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