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Bird song contains crucial information that enables recognition of conspecific individuals from a distance, which facilitates subsequent complex behaviors related to mate attraction and rival deterrence. Loud broadcast signals of non‐learning bird species are usually treated as less complex than songs of Oscines, but several studies have revealed that song learning is not necessary for the evolution of complex signaling. Here, we focused on a species of African wood‐dove which produces superficially simple songs consisting of short notes organized into two parts of different amplitude. Our model was a population of emerald‐spotted wood‐doves (Turtur chalcospilos) that live in the same area as the physically and vocally similar blue‐spotted wood‐dove (Turtur afer). We tested the responses of male emerald‐spotted wood‐doves to different playbacks simulating territorial intrusion. We used songs of the focal species and of the congener, two types of artificially mixed songs with different parts belonging to the focal or congeneric species, and a control song. We aimed to assess (i) whether the focal species responds only to its own species' song or exhibits interspecific territoriality, and (ii) which part of the song is responsible for coding species identity. We found that male emerald‐spotted wood‐doves responded strongly to playback, but almost exclusively approached only the playback of their own species' song. Additionally, only conspecific song caused a decrease in song rate during playback and an increase in song output after playback. Our results suggest that emerald‐spotted wood‐doves are able to discriminate their own songs from those of congeners and do not exhibit interspecies territoriality. We were unable to identify a single part of the song that codes species‐specificity, as mixed songs of any kind did not substantially increase responsiveness to playback in comparison to the congener song or the control. We discuss these results in the context of current hypotheses regarding interspecific territoriality and the evolution of species‐identity coding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mites belonging to the Syringophilidae family are a cosmopolitan and taxonomically diverse group of obligate and permanent parasites. These mites inhabit and reproduce within the hollow quills (calamus) of the wing, tail, and contour feathers. This study presents the first field observations of quill mites parasitising doves of the Turtur genus distributed in sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 145 host individuals from all five Turtur species (i.e., T. abyssinicus, T. afer, T. brehmeri, T. chalcospilos, and T. tympanistria) were examined during ornithological surveys conducted in Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique, and Nigeria. All examined bird species were found to be parasitised by a single oligoxenous syringophilid species, Meitingsunes tympanistria Skoracki & Dabert. Previously, this mite species had only been recorded from T. chalcospilos and T. tympanistria and from Tanzania and Togo; thus, the remaining dove species and countries of origin represent new host and locality records for this quill mite species. In our study, 20 individuals (13.8%) of the Turtur genus were infested by quill mites, with prevalence ranging from 8.8% to 24.2%. Mites were found to inhabit only the quills of wing coverts. No relationship was observed between the host body condition of two analysed host species (T. tympanistria and T. chalcospilos) and infestation by M. tympanistria. The fact that M. tympanistria exploits all representatives of the genus Turtur suggests that this mite species invaded these birds before their radiation, dating back approximately 15 Mya (Middle Miocene). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]