Paper Presentation at the 127th AOU Meeting, Philadelphia, PA

It’s been a while since I added to the blog. I have been feverishly analyzing the results from this and past summers’ data. I have also been preparing a powerpoint presentation, with the help of Dave Hjelm (OIT, Saint Anselm College) and Sherry Chakrin (ThreadFed.com).


I finally gave the paper presentation, Song variation in the Mourning Warbler, at the 127th stated meeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union at the University of Pennsylvania on 13 August, 2009.

The take-home message of my research was that I discovered 4 major regiolects in the breeding range of the Mourning Warbler. A regiolect is similar to a dialect but it occurs on a larger geographic scale (hundreds to thousands of kilometers - see map below). Each regiolect is characterized by 1-3 songs unique to that region (see song types in the previous posting, 14 July). There is also an interesting Hybrid zone in western Ontario where some birds sing hybrid songs. A hybrid song contains a mix of syllables from the western and eastern regiolcets.


Regiolect Map



A second important finding was that the birds were able to discriminate among the song types. They directed more aggression towards their home regiolect versus foreign regiolects (e.g., Western birds more aggressive toward Western songs versus Eastern, Nova Scotia or Newfoundland song types). I have a graph below with the data for several behavior variables I measured during the playback experiments. Many playback experiments on dialect discrimination in other species have produced similar results.


Bar Charts and Sonograms of Focal males used in the experiments



One of the highlights of the meeting was seeing Saint Anselm alum, Dave DesRochers, class of 2000. Dave is a former Biology major from our Department and winner of the Craig C. Hieber award in Biology. Dave is completing his research on conservation of the Hawaiian Moorhen. Dave was co-author on a paper delivered by his advisor and first author on a poster at the meeting’s poster session.

Dave DesRochers and Dr. Jay at the AOU Zoo night (Philadelphia Zoo)



This projected was funded by a Saint Anselm College 2009 summer research grant to Jay Pitocchelli.

More work and podcasts

I am back at work analyzing this summer's data. I have been examining the digital recordings from the Great Lakes region and comparing them to the previous summers' recordings from Canada.


I have been tabulating the data from the playback experiments. The preliminary results look very compelling. Western birds appear to recognize differences between their own dialects and different dialects from eastern North America, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Eastern birds also appear to show a similar pattern of recognition and discrimination. I will report more solid findings later this summer. I will continue to conduct more statistical tests beginning this week.


The College has recently interviewed me about my work and has posted podcasts on the College's website. The first podcast contains an overview of the pattern of geographic variation and some examples of songs from the breeding range.

The images below are sonograms or pictorial representations of the digital recordings of these songs. The x-axis is time in seconds and the y-axis is frequency in kHz.

Eastern Regiolect (Girardville, Quebec)



Newfoundland Regiolect (Burgeo, Newfoundland)




Nova Scotia Regiolect (Wreck Cove, Nova Scotia)



Western Regiolect (Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan)



The second podcast is an interview and description of the project and how I have been conducting field research.

I just finished editing this video of a Western Gull. It is extremely similar to our Great Black-backed Gull.


Western Gull

Back in the Granite State 2009

We took the red-eye flight in from San Francisco and finally arrived home early Saturday morning at the Manchester airport.

I am posting some recent videos of more western species and some interesting behaviors I observed.

The Spotted Towhee is a close relative of our Eastern Towhee. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the Rufous-sided Towhee complex but they were recently split into different species. This video is of a male Spotted Towhee exhibiting "scratching" behavior among Acacia leaves and bark in Sonoma. This male is scratching the leaf litter for food. Scratching behavior is very common among many different groups of birds.


Spotted Towhee




This next video is of the Oregon race of the Dark-eyed Junco. This species is one of the most variable in North America with several recognizable and defined subspecies. The Oregon race is very different from our local Slate-colored variant or (currently) subspecies of Dark-eyed Junco. Although Junco populations vary morphologically from each other, they are still considered subspecies or races of a single species, the Dark-eyed Junco.


Oregon Junco





I like the Black Phoebe for some odd reason so I have included another close-up of this species from downtown Healdsburg near the Bear Republic microbrewery. It is reminiscent of our Eastern Phoebe that is a common breeder in the eastern US and Canada.

Black Phoebe





Here is another interesting species, the Oak Titmouse, that was recently part of the Plains Titmouse group. The Plains Titmouse was recently split into 2 separate species - the Oak Titmouse that breeds in western California and the more eastern Juniper Titmouse from the Great Basin. It is similar to our eastern species, the Tufted Titmouse.

Oak Titmouse

On Vacation 2009 - California Part 2

Kris and I just returned from a hike through the Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve. We went on the Pioneer, East Ridge and Pool Ridge trails for a 5 mile hike.


The trails take you through the bottomlands that are filled with enormous Redwood trees. I am here with the most famous tree in the reserve - the Colonel Armstrong that is more than 1400 years old.




There is little or no ground cover with ferns and oxtails that give it a pre-historic feel. The birding highlights included more western species like the Steller’s Jay and Chestnut-backed Chickadee.

On Vacation – California 2009 Part 1

I’m on vacation with my wife this week in Sonoma, California. However, the birding never stops. I am up to my ears in western species, some of which I have seen before and some of which are new. I have some videos here of some of the western specialties from wine country.

We first attended the 4th of July Parade in Sonoma that featured this Grizzly Bear family, symbol of the Bear Republic.




California Quail male and family



California Quail male



Western Scrub Jay juvenile



Acorn Woodpecker




California Towhee

New Hampshire 2009 Part 2

Mourning Warbler habitat, Franconia, NH

Today was the final day of field work for this summer. I recorded several more male Mourning Warblers from Franconia, NH but only added 2 more playback experiments.

Nonetheless, I am very happy with the results of the field work for this year. I have some great data from the Great Lakes, the Praries of Canada and New Hampshire. I will spend most of the rest of the summer analyzing this new data and preparing for the presentation at this year's AOU meeting later this summer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

More great birding as usual and my sighting are found the June 2009 website.

Next up is a vacation with my wife to Sonoma and Napa Valleys in California.

New Hampshire 2009 Part 1

I revisited 2 study sites in White Mountains National Forest - Twin Mountain and Jefferson. Unfortunately, today was not a great day for Mourning Warbler research. The birds here are not singing with the same intensity as they were in Canada. They may be further along in the breeding cycle (e.g., nesting) and the males may be winding down their territorial behavior.


I only had success with 2 out 6 playback experiments but I did collect some more great data on the responses of Eastern males towards the Western song types. I also scoped out some great habitat here in Franconia for tomorrow morning.

My first successful experiment today was made more interesting when a Common Yellowthroat pair came out to scold me because I must have been close to the nest. The video below is a classic example of the “NESTY” behavior I mentioned earlier this summer.


NESTY Common Yellowthroat female with food





Note that the female who is scolding me here has food in her mouth and was probably about to feed chicks in the nest before I came by. A Mourning Warbler (NH4) is singing in the background.

Here are some photos of the equipment I have been using this summer.


Recording equipment - parabolic microphone, digital recorder and GPS receiver





Playback experiments - iPods and wireless speakers





More great birding as usual and my sighting are found the June 2009 website.