Song characteristics vary clinally across an active colonization zone in Eurasian Nuthatches Sitta europaea

Figures & data

Figure 1. Locations of study sites in Great Britain in relation to Nuthatch colonization history since 1875. Shaded areas represent approximate maximal range during different periods, substantially simplified for illustrative purposes. Range information for the years labelled is taken from Holloway (1996), Sharrock (1976) and Gibbons et al. (1993).

Table 1. The four study site locations, length of time that they have been occupied by Nuthatches (age), the density of tetrads which were occupied by Nuthatches within a 10 km square in which the study site was located (occupied tetrads/10 km²).The characteristics of the song-type meme pool at each site are indicated by the frequency of occurrence of the five song types (SA, TR, FA, DE, UD), the meme-pool size (S), meme-pool diversity (D) and mean repertoire size (S _R ). n is the number of males whose songs were studied at each site.

					Proportion males with song-type
Site	Location	Age (years)	Tetrad density (tetrads/10 km^2)	n	SA	TR	FA	DE	UD	S	D	S R (±se)
Ashridge	51°47′N 0°34′W	162^a	0.498	12	1.00	0.75	0.58	0.33	0.16	5	3.81	2.83 ± 0.11
Wallington	55°09′N 1°58′W	35^b	0.232	12	0.58	0.67	0.75	0.33	0.25	5	3.65	2.75 ± 0.28
Hirsel	55°39′N 2°16′W	17^c	0.076	12	0.67	0.67	0.58	0.25	0.08	5	3.38	2.25 ± 0.28
Dawyck	55°36′N 3°19′W	7^d	0.020	7	0.86	0.86	0.43	0.14	0.00	4	3.00	2.10 ± 0.14
References of earliest records used to determine the age of populations: ^aGoldingham (1985), minimum age only; ^bKerr (2001); ^cMurray (1991); ^dMurray (1998).

Figure 2. Meme-pool characteristics from playback: (a) mean proportion of song-types in repertoires of males at each site; (b) meme-pool diversity (D) in relation to the natural logarithm of local tetrad density (tetrads occupied by breeding birds per 10 km²) with regression line (r ² = 0.99, F _1,2 = 497.92, P = 0.002).

Holloway , S. 1996 . The Historical Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain & Ireland 1875–1900 , London : T & AD Poyser .

 Google Scholar

Sharrock , J. T.R. 1976 . The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland , Calton : T & AD Poyser .

 Google Scholar

Gibbons , D. W. , Reid , J. B. and Chapman , R. A . 1993 . The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland 1998–1991 , Edited by: Gibbons , D. W. , Reid , J. B. and Chapman , R.A . London : T & AD Poyser .

 Google Scholar

Goldingham , A . 1985 . British Birds from Nature: The Tresco Collection of Early Victorian Paintings and Conservations by Frances Mary Isabella Smith , Edited by: Goldingham , A . London : Hamlyn .

 Google Scholar

Kerr , I. 2001 . Northumbrian Birds , Newcastle : Northumberland & Tyneside Bird Club .

 Google Scholar

Murray , R. D. 1991 . The first successful breeding of nuthatch in Scotland . Scottish Bird Report , 22 : 51 – 55 .

 Google Scholar

Murray , R. D. 1998 . Borders Bird Report, No. 18 , Aberlady : Scottish Ornithologists' Club .

 Google Scholar