From song dialects to speciation in white-crowned sparrows.

Culturally Transmitted Patterns of Vocal Behavior in Sparrows.

Male white-crowned sparrows have song "dialects," acquired in about the first 100 days of life by learning from older males. In the laboratory an alien white-crowned sparrow dialect can be taught. Once the song is established further acoustical experience does not change the pattern. White-crowned sparrows do not copy recorded songs of other sparrow species presented under similar conditions.

Song Dialects as Barriers to Dispersal in White-crowned Sparrows, Zonotrichia Leucophrys Nuttalli.

Cultural Evolution of Puget Sound White-Crowned Sparrow Song Dialects

The songs of male Puget Sound white-crowned sparrows currently form about 12 dialects along the Pacific Northwest coast. In his survey of 1970, Baptista (Condor 1977; 79: 356–370) defined six of the dialects based on the song’s terminal trill because most males at each locality shared the simple syllables (SSs) in this trill. The complex syllables (CSs) in the song’s introduction varied among m...

Ecological influences on vocal development in the white-crowned sparrow.

Gambel's white-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii, is a long-distance migrant that, in contrast to other subspecies of white-crowned sparrow, does not form vocal dialects. I studied the process of vocal development in the field and laboratory to determine how it differed from the process in three other subspecies previously studied. Four common song types existed in a random spati...

Roles of syntax information in directing song development in white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys).

Syntactical cues play an important role in song learning in songbirds. White-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys), whose song typically consists of four to five different phrases, fail to construct normal songs if exposed to all phrase types presented singly (Plamondon, Goller, & Rose, 2008; Soha & Marler 2001b). The specific role of acquired syntax information in guiding ontogenetic traje...