Birds: duets, dialects - Duette und Dialekte
Dialects
Dialekte		 back to Seibt
Dialects are intraspecific variants of culturally transmitted songs, shared by many individuals and differing between areas (local dialects) or sexes (gender dialects). Depending on the type of sound production there are vocal or instrumental dialects.

Field situation: 5 local wing-flap pattern in East Africa © Seibt

Findings
- Local wing-flap patterns differ in the number of phrases and the number of flaps per phrase and thus form instrumental dialects.
- Available data strongly suggest that neighbouring males acoustically copy one another's wing-flap patterns.

Conclusions
Findings suggest the ability to transfer perceived numbers into performed numbers under natural conditions

Literature
Wickler, Wolfgang, Seibt, Uta & Schmidl, Dieter 2006: Song differences between populations of seven subspecies of African forest weaver Ploceus bicolor Vieillot (Aves: Passeriformes). Journal for Ornithology 147, 87-96

Seibt, Uta, Wickler, Wolfgang, Kleindienst, Hans-Ulrich & Sonnenschein, Edith 2002: Structure, geography and origin of dialects in the traditive song of the forest weaver Ploceus bicolor sclateri in Natal, S. Africa. Behaviour 139, 1237-1265

Wickler, Wolfgang & Seibt, Uta 1988: "Gender dialects" - a new phenomenon from birdsong epigenesis. Naturwissenschaften 75, 51-52

Seibt, Uta 1977: Instrumentaldialekte der Klapperlerche Mirafra rufocinnamomea (Salvadori). Journal für Ornithologie 116, 103-107

Additional Literature
Wickler, Wolfgang & Lunau, K. 1996: How do East African bush shrikes Laniarius funebris recognize male and female tutors during gender dialect development? Naturwissenschaften 83, 579-580

Wickler, Wolfgang 1986: Dialekte im Tierreich. Ihre Ursachen und Konsequenzen. Aschendorf, Münster. pp. 84

Wickler, Wolfgang 1967: Der "Flügelgesang" der ostafrikanischen Klapperlerche Mirafra rufocinnamomea (Salvadori). Vogelwelt 88, 161-165