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R. E. Lemon, R. Cotter, R. C. MacNally, S. Monette, Song Repertoires and Song Sharing by American Redstarts, The Condor: Ornithological Applications, Volume 87, Issue 4, November 1985, Pages 457–470, https://doi.org/10.2307/1367942
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Abstract
We studied the extent to which male American Redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla) share songs in their repertoires. Examining samples of songs from three locations in New Brunswick, Canada, we found significant heterogeneity in the frequencies of the different songs across the locations. The extent to which neighbors shared songs related to increasing repertoire size (mean 4.4 songs/adult male). In the relatively larger sample at St. Andrews, neighboring adult males shared significantly more song types (P < 0.05) than did adult males chosen at random. However, this result applied only to individuals with intermediate-sized repertoires (four songs). Subadult males at St. Andrews shared as much with neighboring adult males as did adult males among themselves. In the small, island population at Back Bay, adult males shared noticeably more songs than at St. Andrews. We attribute the difference in degree of song sharing to demographic aspects, including patterns of settlement, interacting with tendencies to copy songs. Therefore, any so-called "dialects" in songs of American Redstarts seem more as "epiphenomena" resulting from competition between males rather than as indications of local adaptations of males.
