The many meanings of great tit song.

Studies on Great Tit song investigated song characteristics mainly influenced by song learning. Great Tit song provides information on the origin of birds (e.g. song dialects), and on the habitat type in which the birds live. Experimental studies yielded a series of hypotheses about the functional meaning of song type structure and song repertoires. Detailed studies of individual differences in great tit singing performance, that are summarised here, revealed that variation in great tit song is not only caused by learning ability and learning opportunities, but could also be influenced by constraints in singing ability. These studies showed that great tit song reflects male quality.