Yellowhammer dialects - international project

[Chris Gaskin]

Hi all,

Forest & Bird, as BirdLife International's New Zealand partner, has been approached by the Birdlife Czechia, regarding a very successful citizen science project they have been leading for two years in Czechia on yellowhammer dialects.

To quote Zdeněk Vermouzek, who made the initial approach: “Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) is a common, easy to recognise European bird with distinct simple song. Based on terminal syllables, several yellowhammer dialects can be distinguished, which show non-random distribution across Europe. In a successful citizen science project jointly organised in Czechia since 2011 by the Czech Society for Ornithology (BirdLife Czechia) and university and academia researchers, volunteers contributed field recordings to map geographical distribution of yellowhammer dialects in the country. Thanks to their activity, the country has become within a short time one of the best studied European regions in this aspect (see www.strnadi.cz/kde). Both results and public involvement are very promising, and confirm that the species has great potential for citizen science projects, and promotion of ornithology and studies of animal behaviour.

“We originally tested a hypothesis that a border between yellowhammer macrodialects in Europe passes through Czechia, however, many other interesting questions can be solved using the same approach. Therefore, we would like to expand the project to international level. In particular, we aim to compare dialects of yellowhammers in an exotic range (New Zealand) and in its original source area (Great Britain) to demonstrate how dialects spread and evolved when small populations were introduced to a large unoccupied area. This will be a part of PhD projects of students originally involved in the Czech study. However, we would like to use this opportunity to retain the project under auspices of BirdLife International, and expand collaboration among BirdLife partners.”

Since that initial approach there has been some discussion with the organisers of the project as to how progress this project here in NZ, mostly notably Pavel Pipek (Charles University in Prague), to ensure they get what they need.

Pavel writes:
“The whole project is planned in a way that it relies on public participation, and does not require any high-quality equipment from the volunteers involved, or any sophisticated input from collaborators abroad. The key aspect is to spread the word to the relevant audience in the target countries (and attract them to the project website). If people get interested, we believe they will be able to contribute. We managed, by involving volunteers from the public (mostly birdwatchers, nature lovers, students, etc.), to obtain within two seasons over 1700 yellowhammer recordings from the Czech Republic. Most people used consumer-level devices that allow sound or video recording into a digital format (including smartphones, digital cameras and video cameras, digital voice recorders, etc.). Then, they uploaded the sound or video files (even compressed formats such as MP3 or AVI) and filled in a simple form. Majority of the recordings were of a sufficient quality that would allow identification of Yellowhammer dialects.

“The project has a dedicated website www.yellowhammers.net, which already provides basic information about the project and the target species, and will be gradually expanded further (to provide online maps, details for testing the recording equipment, etc.). We are expanding the pilot project abroad only this year; however, we would appreciate very much any recordings that could be obtained in New Zealand.”

Sadly their request came too late to capture this season’s breeding. The ideal would be to get recordings from around NZ throughout a full breeding season, however the invitation is there to those of you who would like to participate and start the flow of recordings. On their website there is a form (http://yellowhammers.net/upload) that allows you to upload the recording or to give a link, together with all necessary information.


Chris Gaskin
Forest & Bird

[Pavel Pipek]

Thank you very much for this post, Chris. Just one more thing, we prepared a leaflet with brief information about the project. You can download it here:
http://www.yellowhammers.net/files/yell ... eaflet.png
Share it as you like.
We hope that it is still not too late and someone will succeed in recording the yellowhammer song:-)

Pavel Pipek,
Charles University in Prague

[Pavel Pipek]

Just a short info. We obtained the first recording and it is really promising - the yellowhammer sang in dialect unknown in Europe. You can watch and listen at http://yellowhammers.net/files/first_recording.mp4
The great news is that yellowhammers are still singing. At least in the vicinity of Auckland.

[Pavel Pipek]

Hi all,
we would like to ask you once more to get involved in our Yellowhammer Dialects project (http://yellowhammers.net) and help us to map the distribution of yellowhammers dialects in New Zealand. This time it would be hopefully easier for you as we are testing a new smartphone app (Epicollect+), see:

http://yellowhammers.net/tutorial.

Season in UK (and Europe as well) was succesful, we got almost 100 recordings and circa the same number will be provided soon from archives of British library. Some recordings were also already online - on youtube, SoundCloud, etc. We put all recordings together with data already published in Scientific journals and the resulting map is here:

http://yellowhammers.net/recording/full.

As you can see, even among the few recordings from New Zealand we obtained so far, there are already dialects not discovered in Britain, from where the New Zealandian populations originate. However, these dialects are present for example in France or in the Czech Republic. Another interesting thing is that same dialects is are two places so far away (Britain, middle Asia, New Zealand), but missing in between.

The map will be updated soon after we analyse recordings from British library, as well as the recordings we got from DOC just recently, so maybe some new interesting patterns will emerge. Nevertheless, it will still take some effort before we reach the same density of recordings as in the Czech Republic, where our succesful project has been running for three years (http://birds.cz/avif/strnad_mapa2.php).

Yellowhammer Dialects project really got attention in the UK. Articles about the project were published both at ornithological websites (BOU blog, BirdGuides, Wildlife recordings society) and daily newspaper (Telegraph, the Times). Mark Eaton also talked about the project for BBC Manchester Radio station. Finally, Czech as well as this international project were presented at EOU conference in Norwich, where we won the prize for the best student poster - poster can be seen here: http://www.bou.org.uk/Yellowhammer-poster.pdf

I think that in the end, we will uncover a fascinating story - the history of yellowhammer invasion seen (or rather heard) through dialects perspective. Just a notion here, we will simultaneously do field experiments in the Czech Republic, which will tell us, how the dialects are maintained and what the birds actually think about them.

Pavel Pipek,
Charles University in Prague

[Neil Robertson]

Many thanks to Chris Gaskin for reminding us of this interesting project. Has it been established with any certainty which sub-species of yellowhammer was imported into NZ during the 1860s? During my early years living on a farm in Kent, SE England I listened to Emberiza citronella citronella, 'a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese' and in later years in Scotland I regularly heard E. c. caliginosa, 'deil-deil-deil-tak ye'. From memory there was a subtle but distinct difference between the two songs, particularly in the pitch, tone and duration of the final note. The Checklist 4th edition notes that the assignment of NZ birds to E. c. caliginosa may need further evaluation. Assuming the birds for export were collected locally, then those travelling from Glasgow or Liverpool would certainly be E. c. caliginosa, however any leaving from London or Southampton would more likely be E. c. citronella. Accepting that audible memory is likely to be fallible, mine in particular, I would say that yellowhammers in Southland sound more similar to Scottish birds than their SE England counterparts, but I am happy to be enlightened by further research. Of course, we may have a similar situation as Redpolls, where there is a 'hybrid' population naturalised in NZ. As an aside, whilst on a birding trip in the Spanish Pyrenees during June 2013, and with this project in mind, I managed to capture video and sound recording of a male yellowhammer; the Pyrenees are at the extreme southern limit of the breeding range for the species. The Spanish song was very different from both UK and NZ birds, with a very restrained and attenuated final note. I will be forwarding this recording, and any others I can make, to the project in due course.
regards
Neil

[Davidthomas]

I know its not necessarily particularly useful, but many people who come from england including my parents/aunt and uncle notice that the 'a little bit of bread and no cheese' call is slightly different in terms of the final 'cheese' part in New Zealand than found in England. Perhaps this is as Neil suggested and there were multiple releases of different subspecies and as a result we have birds that exhibit varying levels of the introduced sub-species dialects?

[Pavel Pipek]

Thank for your interest and good point with the subspecies. However, the distribution of the dialects does not seem to match the distribution of the subspecies (according to The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World), see http://yellowhammers.net/recording/full. In fact, yellowhammer song does not differ just in "cheese" part - the song with "cheese" is unfinished. I would say that yellowhammers sing rather "a little bit of bread and no cheese, please" as the final part of their song consists of two syllables (and sometimes even three). Just have a look at http://www.yellowhammers.net/listen/ and listen to the fascinating variability of the final part of the yellowhammer song (we covered just 6 out of around 10 different dialects present in Europe). We expect yellowhammer dialects to be more a cultural thing, just like human dialects and languages.
But you are right, that in New Zealand, quite probably birds from previously isolated populations come together and the outcome of this mix could be quite interesting.

[Pavel Pipek]

Hi all!
Does anybody live near Coromandel peninsula? Jeniffer sent us recording which was recorded by a camera with low sampling frequency, therefore, the sound was somehow twisted (due to undersampling). Yet it seems she is the first to record yellowhammer singing in BC dialect.
https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 4284_n.png
If any of you happen to hear singing yellowhammer there, please record it for us to confirm this new dialect, which is very common in Britain (yellowhammers mother country).
Pavel Pipek
Yellowhammer Dialects Project
http://yellowhammers.net

[Davidthomas]

Do you know where she was on the Coromandel Peninsula? i am unsure if my camera would be any better but could potentially try during january when i am home?

[Pavel Pipek]

Thank you for your kind response, David. She was in Kauaeranga Valley:
http://www.yellowhammers.net/recording/524
11 kHz was really low sampling frequency, I bet your camera will do better.
Pavel