Song complexity, song rate, and variation in the adrenocortical stress response in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia)

• We examined whether song traits correlate with the adrenocortical stress response.
• We also tested whether song and stress traits correlated with quality and fitness.
• Song repertoire size positively correlated with the stress response.
• Song rate positively correlated with body mass and nestling mass.
• Different song traits conveyed distinct information regarding male quality.

Physiological mechanisms that pleiotropically affect condition, life-history decisions, and fitness may covary with the expression of sexually selected ornaments. The adrenocortical stress response regulates energy balance, controls vertebrate responses to survival threats, and may divert energy expenditure away from investment in costly sexual displays. Further, developmental stress may induce correlations between the stress response during adulthood and sexual signals that develop early in life, such as song in oscine birds. We examined the relationship between the adrenocortical stress response (measured by plasma corticosterone concentrations) and the sexually selected traits of song complexity and song rate in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Additionally, we explored whether the stress response, song complexity, or song rate predict other male quality and fitness metrics. In contrast to prior research, which reports negative relationships between song complexity and the stress response in this species, males with larger song repertoires had larger stress responses. Song rate was unrelated to the stress response, but positively correlated with male body mass and nestling mass. In addition, males with higher syllable diversity had longer wingchords and lower hematocrit, males with larger song repertoires had heavier nestlings and higher hematocrit, and males with larger stress responses and baseline corticosterone had higher hematocrit. Results suggest that the relationship between the stress response and song complexity is context-dependent, and that song repertoire size, syllable diversity, and song rate serve distinct signaling functions.