Perez Mena and Mora • GEOGRAPHIC SONG VARIATION IN THE CUBAN TODY 81 
Time (msec) 
Amplitude (dB) 
FIG. 4. A. Oscillogram (above) and spectrogram (below) of the sound produced with the wings by the Cuban Tody. B. 
Detailed spectrogram (left) and power spectra (right) of the train marked in A with an asterisk. 
researchers undertaking qualitative descriptions. 
The species repertoire size is comparable to other 
non-oscines such as Percnostola saturata (Braun 
et al. 2005), but smaller than that of Todus 
mex icanus, which exhibits six different song types 
ln its repertoire (Kepler 1977). 
Geographic Variation in the Characteristic 
Son 8 of the Cuban Tody. —Our prediction of an 
averse relation between song similarity and 
^stance between individuals was partially sup¬ 
ported by our findings. The characteristic song of 
the Cuban Tody exhibits two main forms on the 
archipelago of Cuba (Fig. 5), one corresponding 
to Western Cuba (Isla de la Juventud and Pinar del 
Rio) and the other to Eastern Cuba (from 
Guantanamo to Matanzas). Song variation can 
reflect historical barriers (Baril and Barlow 2000, 
Tack et al. 2005), and we see two possible 
explanations for the geographic variation that we 
observed in the Cuban Tody songs: one ancient 
and the other more recent. The Cuban area 
alternated between being one continuous island 
in the Pleistocene, which could propitiate a 
constant gene flow among the Cuban Tody 
populations, to several islands during periods of 
high sea level that might act as a physical barrier to 
this flow. Kepler (1977) used the fossil evidence 
presented by Olson (1976) to hypothesize that 
Paleotodus dispersed from the Yucatan Peninsula 
to Cuba during the Pleistocene or earlier and 
thereafter evolved into the Cuban species (Cuban 
Tody). Overton and Rhoads (2004), in agreement 
