How to translate text using browser tools
1 January 2013 Rapid Change in a Type I Song Dialect of Hermit Warblers (Setophaga occidentalis)
Stewart W. Janes, Lee Ryker
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Although first-category (Type I) songs of some wood-warblers (Parulidae) are structurally stable over time and range, we document a rapid change in the song of a population of Hermit Warblers (Setophaga occidentalis) in northern Oregon. Type I songs on Mount Hood were recorded in 1990 and 1992. When the population was revisited in 2003, the birds in the area sang a different Type I song. The distinctive terminal syllable was absent, the introductory series of repeated syllables had differentiated into two parts, and the first phrase had increased in duration. In 2004, an area within a 20-km radius centered on the original population was systematically searched; from 2004 to 2006, selected areas were searched up to 65 km distant. Five scattered individuals in a limited area were found singing the earlier song 23–28 km to the east, at the periphery of the area dominated by the new song. The differences between the earlier and later songs, which are smaller than differences with neighboring dialects, suggest that the song changed within the current population rather than via displacement by individuals from an adjacent song population. Structural change over time in a Type I song of a wood-warbler over an area larger than a neighborhood has not been previously documented.

© 2013 by The American Ornithologists' Union. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp.
Stewart W. Janes and Lee Ryker "Rapid Change in a Type I Song Dialect of Hermit Warblers (Setophaga occidentalis)," The Auk 130(1), 30-35, (1 January 2013). https://doi.org/10.1525/auk.2012.11273
Received: 19 December 2011; Accepted: 3 October 2012; Published: 1 January 2013
KEYWORDS
Hermit Warbler
Oregon
Setophaga occidentalis
song change
song dialect
Type I song
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top