ABSTRACT
Owing to their colonial habit, communication in seabirds is an important part of their existence and most seabird colonies are noisy and active. They use a combination of calls and postures to find a mate, defend a territory, and communicate their intentions to neighbors. Communication means expressing a motivation (such as aggression) via a posture, movement, or vocalization, or a combination of these, in response to a stimulus from another individual, usually a conspecific. Often it is ritualized (sensu Tinbergen 1952), defined as stereotyped, exaggerated, and repetitive, although information can be conveyed via nonritualized, involuntary behavior such as intention movements (see Beer 1980 for comments on communication in gulls). The behavior expressed depends on context. For instance, male sexual advertising occurs only in relation to a territory or nest site. Communication behaviors are species-specific and are far from equally developed in the various seabird families.
