Overproduction in Song Development: An Evolutionary Correlate with Migration

From Pubwiki

[edit] Author(s)

• Nelson, D. A.
• Marler, P.
• Morton, M. L.

[edit] Journal

Animal Behaviour 51 (1996): 1127-40.

[edit] Keywords

white-crowned sparrows zonotrichia-leucophrys selective attrition singing behavior bird song dialects ontogeny

[edit] Abstract

Many songbirds overproduce songs during development and shrink the repertoire at the time of adult crystallization. The amount of overproduction varies between species. The hypothesis was tested that overproduction of learned songs during ontogeny is correlated with a migratory annual cycle. It is argued that in migrants, overproduction permits song matching between territory neighbours when song memorization is restricted to an early sensitive phase and young males subsequently disperse relatively long distances to their first breeding territory. Song development was compared in the sedentary Nuttall's white-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli, and two migratory taxa, the Puget Sound white-crowned sparrow, Z. l.pugetensis, and the mountain white-crowned sparrow, Z. l.oriantha. Although the Puget Sound and Nuttall's white-crowned sparrows are sister taxa, male Puget Sound sparrows more closely resembled the more distantly related, but migratory, mountain white-crowned sparrow on every measure of song development studied. It is concluded that a migratory annual cycle is a better explanation of diversity in vocal development in this species than recency of common ancestry. (C) 1996 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

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