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Antiphonal duets between male and female of a mated pair have been described for many bird species. Most authors admit that duetting may have different functions in different species, but they usually treat it as a uniform phenomenon within one species, although the same pair may duet with a variety of different songtypes. This paper presents evidence that in Laniarius funebris different duettypes indeed serve different functions.

In the study population at Lake Baringo (Kenya) males duet with four songtypes, females with only one. By means of multivariate analyses it was found that the occurrence of the four male songtypes cannot be explained by a single, uniform tendency for duetting, but only by 3–4 factors representing different functions. These functions were analysed by studying the frequency of songs initiated by males and females, the frequency of answers in different situations …