Intraguild interactions shape vocal output and diel activity patterns in sympatric forest owls

Competition and intraguild predation among sympatric predators may force smaller, subordinate predators to reduce interactions with larger, dominant species via restricted spatial or temporal activity (acquiescence hypothesis). Simultaneously, dominant predators may actively exclude subordinate competitors through frequent vocal and physical aggression (exclusion hypothesis). While spatial avoidance is well documented across predator communities, evidence for temporal avoidance, especially across the diel (24 h) cycle remains largely limited to mammalian predators. Using long‐term passive acoustic monitoring, we assessed the effects of intraguild interactions on owl vocal activity in central Europe, specifically in southern Bohemia, Czech Republic. We quantified vocal output, bout durations (durations of consecutive minutes with vocalisation), and diel vocal activity patterns across the night in a predator guild consisting of four co‐occurring forest owl species: Ural owl Strix uralensis , tawny owl Strix aluco , boreal owl Aegolius funereus and pygmy owl Glaucidium passerinum . Generalised linear mixed models indicated that boreal owls significantly reduced vocal output in the presence of tawny owls, probably to reduce predation risk. Generalised additive mixed models demonstrated that all species shifted diel vocal activity patterns in the presence of dominant or competitor species, suggesting avoidance (boreal with tawny, tawny with Ural, pygmy with both tawny and Ural owls), and interference (Ural with tawny owl) among owl species. However, vocal activity of boreal owls was largely unchanged when co‐occurring with Ural owls. Our findings demonstrate that intraguild interactions not only affect overall acoustic signalling effort in the central European owl community but also drive fine‐scale temporal redistribution of vocal activity, which may facilitate coexistence. Furthermore, our results provide mixed support for the acquiescence and exclusion hypotheses, indicating that these effects were not merely associated with a size‐structured dominance hierarchy but instead reflected species‐specific ecological relationships. While further research is required to assess whether such changes in vocal behaviour are associated with fitness or mortality risk, our findings have important implications for monitoring programmes that may be broadly applicable to predator guilds.