Rain-Call Dialects of the Chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs (Fringillidae), in Ukraine

Abstract

Four types of Chaffinch rain-calls were found in Ukraine: “rülsch” - a trill signal widely spread in Europe; “hui” - a whistle signal that occurs in North-Western and Central Europe; “Crimean” whistle signal known only from Crimean peninsula and “Caucasian” signal occurring in Caucasus, Asia Minor and Balkans. Sonograms of rendition versions are given for all of the call types. Distribution of dialects of Chaffinch rain-calls in Ukraine was examined. “Rülsch”- dialect occurs at most of the plane Ukraine and Carpathians. Owing to colonizing artificial afforestations in steppe zone this dialect population’s range expanded southward to the coast of the Black and Azov seas. “Hui”-dialect is spread in the Lower Danube region. At the North-Eastern Danube delta Chaffinch’s with “hui”- and “rülsch”- rain-calls are found together and a bird was found that uttered both signals alternately but hybrid signals were not registered. It may attest to recent invasion by “rülsch”- population of Chaffinch’s there. “Crimean” dialect is distributed in mountainous Crimea and in most of the Crimean steppe zone. “Caucasian” rain-call renditions are registered in cases of individual vagrant birds in eastern Crimea and Lower Danube region

Detailed large‐scale mapping of geographical variation of Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella song dialects in a citizen science project

“…). Dialects have been also well documented for the ‘rain calls’ in the Common Chaffinch (Baptista , Haartman & Numers , Tsvelykh & Yablonovska‐Grishchenko ). Sharp dialect borders were also detected in Rufous‐collared Sparrows (Nottebohm , Handford ) and White‐crowned Sparrows (Marler & Tamura ).…”

“…Podos and Warren () suggested several scenarios that may cause geographical variations in birdsong and some of them may be relevant to Yellowhammer dialects. The presence of the same dialects in different areas (a phenomenon also observed in Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs ‘rain’ calls; Tsvelykh & Yablonovska‐Grishchenko ) may be explained by a rare long‐distance dispersal of males singing that dialect (and its subsequent establishment and spread by cultural transmission). However, independent emergence of the same dialect type cannot be entirely excluded (see Pipek et al .…”

Song Repertoire and Comparative Analysis of Song Structure of Chaffinch, Fringilla Coelebs (Fringillidae), from the Northeast of Balkan Region

“…Different Chaffi nch populations may have radically diff erent rain-calls: throughout the vast species range, several highly distinctive rain-call dialects were found. Comparative analysis of Chaffi nch rain-calls revealed that signals of Balkan birds were drastically diff erent from analogous signals of Chaffi nches from the Crimea, plain Ukraine and Eastern Carpathians but completely identical to signals of Caucasian birds (Tsvelykh, 2011;Tsvelykh, Yablonovska-Grishchenko, 2013). It is assumed that Chaffi nches from the Caucasus and Asia Minor and some of the Balkan regions belong to one geographical population of subspecies Fringilla coelebs caucasica Serebr.…”