scholarly journals From song dialects to speciation in white-crowned sparrows

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (11) ◽  
pp. 2842-2844 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. L. Toews
Keyword(s):  
Song Dialects

Inter-dialect dispersal is common in the Puget Sound white-crowned sparrow

Behaviour ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 154 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 809-834
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Nelson ◽  
Ben M. Nickley ◽  
Angelika Poesel ◽  
H. Lisle Gibbs ◽  
John W. Olesik
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Inductively Coupled Plasma ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
Trace Element Analysis ◽  
The Body ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Inductively Coupled ◽  
Genetic Structure Of Populations ◽  
Song Dialects ◽  
Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Dispersal in birds can have an important influence on the genetic structure of populations by affecting gene flow. In birds that learn their songs, dispersal can affect the ability of male birds to share songs in song dialects and may influence mate attraction. We used Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) trace element analysis on the body feathers of birds to assess dispersal among four song dialects. We found that (1) most males had a feather element profile typical of only one dialect location; (2) males singing non-local (‘foreign’) dialects in a focal population often learned their foreign songs outside the dialect; and (3) females often dispersed among dialects. We estimated 5% dispersal per year by yearling males between the site of moulting and breeding. Our estimate is consistent with genetic estimates of widespread gene flow between dialects in this subspecies of the white-crowned sparrow.

Bird-song dialects: Filling in the gaps

1985 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliot A. Brenowitz
Keyword(s):  
Bird Song ◽  
Song Dialects

Sound Transmission: a Basis for Dialects in Birdsong?

Behaviour ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 124 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 291-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.E. Lemon ◽  
E.M. Date
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Several Variables ◽  
Open Forest ◽  
Forest Sites ◽  
American Redstarts ◽  
Song Dialects ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Pure Tones ◽  
Better Than

AbstractThe environmental adaptation hypothesis (EAH) regarding birdsong dialects or ncighbourhoods states that song similarities between neighbouring individuals arise because of common influences on their songs exerted by the acoustic environment of their habitat. An assumption of the hypothesis is that sounds are distorted differently by different types of habitat. A prediction of the hypothesis is that some songs or parts of songs transmit better than others, depending on the habitat of their origin. We tested the assumption and prediction by comparing the attenuation and differential attenuation of pure tones, decreases in modal frequencies of computer simulated songs of American redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla), and the decay of redstart songs and white noise at deciduous, coniferous and open forest sites. The songs were representative of those used by redstarts living in thc three habitats. Results supported the assumption of acoustic differences between habitats but did not support the prediction that some songtypes transmit with less distortion in specific habitats than in others. The EAH also predicts that individuals which inhabit similar vegetation should share more song features than individuals which inhabitat dissimilar vegetation. To test this prediciton samples of songs were taken from the three habitats in different years. There were significant associations by habitat in both samples, but only one of several variables measured was significant and the discriminating variable was not the same for the two periods. Considering together the tests of the assumption and the two predictions, we conclude that for American redstarts evidence of the influence of the acoustic features of habitat on the formation of song dialects is mixed and not convincing.

Microgeographic Variation in Songs of Splendid Sunbirds Nectarinia Coccinigaster : Population Phenetics, Habitats, and Song Dialects

Behaviour ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 65 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 282-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Payne R.B.
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Social Adaptation ◽  
Main Study ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Uniform Size ◽  
Song Variation ◽  
Song Dialects ◽  
Coexisting Species ◽  
Microgeographic Variation

Songs of Splendid Sunbirds at Cape Coast University, Ghana, were recorded and the audiospectrograms analyzed by multivariate statistical techniques. Neighboring birds usually had similar but nonidentical songs. Groups and subgroups of neighbors occurred at distances up to 7 km. Several birds had songs intermediate in structure between those of the main groups, and a few had songs unlike their neighbors. Song differences measured by phenetic distances are significantly correlated with microgeographic distances between the birds, at distances up to 1-2 km. The variation in song is described in terms of dialects and in terms of behavioral variation with microgeographic distance. The dialect areas were less than 1 km2 and involved from 5 (probably an underestimate) to 14 individual males. The local microgeographic scale of song variation agrees with that reported for other populations in Ghana, but variation in space is not as grouped into discrete dialects as described by GRIMES (1974). Birds with similar songs did not consistently occur in similar habitats, except when the birds were neighbors in a common patch of habitat. No song differences were associated with the presence of different coexisting species of sunbirds. Birds at distances of 10 to 400 km were little more divergent in song than birds within the 4 km2 area of the main study site. No geographic trends in song were found along more than 100 km of the coastal plain of Ghana, and no consistent differences were found between coastal and inland populations. Similarities among the songs of neighboring birds, differences between neighborhoods, and the uniform size of the song "dialects" are tentatively explained in terms of social adaptation rather than habitat adaptation.

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