Regional Dialects

Program Description

In the previous program, we explored small local song dialects that became established in patches of chaparral habitat growing back after a forest fire. Larger regional song dialects can arise when populations of birds are isolated by distance or geological barriers.

In this program, we listen to white-crowned sparrow dialects recorded by Chris Tenney: two from central coastal regions and one from the Sierra Nevadas, slowing down the songs to hear the dialects better.

Program & Recording Notes

Chris Tenney recorded the white crowned sparrows at Big Sur, Pebble Beach, and in the Sierra Nevadas. The Marin headlands post-wildfire white-crowned sparrow dialects are from CD accompanying Donald Kroodsma's book The Singing Life of Birds

I slowed down the songs using Bias Peak.

Series 3
Egg Calls
Chick ID Calls
Chicken Calls
Vocal Tract
Syrinx Styles
Airway Model
Airway Overtones
Coiled Trachea
Beak & Airway
Vowels & Airway
Tuvan Throat Singing
Whistling

Series 4
Size & Sound
Forest Soundscape
Grassland Soundscape
Bird Hearing
Local Dialects
Regional Dialects
Drumming - Woodpeckers Etc.
Bird Tongues
Bird Brains & Singing
Song Duels?
Dawn Chorus
Finale: Song Sparrow