Article 57 (140) Geographical variation in song phrases differs with their function in white-crowned sparrow song

Geographical variation in song phrases differs with their function in white-crowned sparrow song

Complex signals that convey diverse forms of information may face conflicting pressures on their structure. Certain messages, such as species identification or ‘alerting’ receivers may require a relatively invariant signal structure, while messages about dialect or individual identity and motivation require structural diversity within and among individuals of a species. I measured acoustic features of the songs of 267 males and tested for geographical structure using Mantel tests and Mantel correlograms. I suggest that differences in how these phrases develop, as measured in laboratory song-learning experiments, coupled with dispersal may contribute to the differing distribution