Song exposure during juvenile dispersal in Mountain White-crowned Sparrows

The degree to which local song structure reflects the singer's population of origin is a long-standing and contentious issue. Young songbirds that settle to breed outside their natal song-dialect area may learn to produce nonnatal dialect by hearing and memorizing these songs during juvenile di...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Auk 2014-04, Vol.131 (2), p.208-214
Main Authors: Ho, Winnie W, Connolly, Sara G, Reynolds, Pamela L, Cornelius, Jamie M, MacDougall-Shackleton, Elizabeth A, Morton, Martin L, Pereyra, Maria E, Hahn, Thomas P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adults
Animal behavior
Animal reproduction
Aviculture
Bird songs
Birds
birdsong
Breeding seasons
COMMUNICATION AND SENSORY ECOLOGY
dialect
Dispersal
hearing
juvenile dispersal
juveniles
Learning
mountains
Ornithology
Passeriformes
Regional dialects
Singing
Songbirds
Sparrows
Tutoring
White-crowned Sparrow
Young animals
Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha
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Summary:The degree to which local song structure reflects the singer's population of origin is a long-standing and contentious issue. Young songbirds that settle to breed outside their natal song-dialect area may learn to produce nonnatal dialect by hearing and memorizing these songs during juvenile dispersal. We quantified adult singing rates in a population of Mountain White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha) in the Sierra Nevada in 2 yr, and compared them with the arrival schedule of juveniles not hatched on the study area. Our results show that opportunities for juveniles to learn new (nonnatal) song types become highly limited during the premigratory dispersal phase, because adult singing rates are very low by the time nonlocal juveniles begin to arrive. Thus, if individuals learn nonnatal songs during dispersal, they must do so hearing relatively few repetitions of the unfamiliar dialect.
ISSN:0004-8038
1938-4254
1938-4254
2732-4613
DOI:10.1642/AUK-12-120-R2.1