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Myron Charles Baker, Daniel B. Thompson, Song Dialects of White-Crowned Sparrows: Historical Processes Inferred from Patterns of Geographic Variation, The Condor: Ornithological Applications, Volume 87, Issue 1, February 1985, Pages 127–141, https://doi.org/10.2307/1367144
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Abstract
We described geographic variation in the syllabic structure of the song of White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli) resident in coastal California. We identified six large and relatively homogeneous populations that differed discretely at one locus in the song, the complex syllable, and have called these "dialect" populations. Two "superdialects" were also identified on the basis of two other loci in the song, the introduction and the ending. Using another part of the song, the simple syllable locus, we also identified large-scale geographic clusters of similarity that were moderately concordant with dialect variation. From the patterns of geographic variation shown by the four song loci, we hypothesize that our study area was colonized by two ancestral populations. The existing song populations are therefore interpreted to be in secondary contact. Relatively narrow zones of "overlap" at dialect borders are identified and their widths estimated. Application of cline theory to the data suggests that 100-200 years have elapsed since secondary contact.
