Perez Mena and Mora • 
GEOGRAPHIC SONG VARIATION IN THE CUBAN TODY 
TABLE 3. Standardized canonical 
discriminant 
function coefficients for Cuban Tody songs. 
Function 
Parameter 
I 
II 
Interval between notes 
0.801 
0.314 
Note duration 
0.100 
0.039 
Number of notes 
0.561 
-0.930 
Peak frequency 
-0.098 
0.557 
Interval between songs 
0.248 
0.643 
Initial frequency 
0.065 
0.377 
Final frequency 
-0.204 
-0.018 
observed variation in the Cuban Tody songs, as 
proposed for the Rufous-collared Sparrow (Zono- 
trichia capensis) by Tubaro et al. (1993). 
Pleistocene glaciation is believed to have influ¬ 
enced the present distribution of many Antillean 
taxa, but the paucity of information regarding the 
differentiation of these taxa has left uncertain how 
much these ancient climatic fluctuations contrib¬ 
uted to the speciation process (Pregill and Olson 
1981). Further, for the last 8,000 years, after the 
early Holocene subsidence of seas levels (Itur- 
ralde-Vinent 2004), Cuba has been a single 
continuous island through which todies could 
potentially move with relative ease. The potential 
lor genetic flow was interrupted again in the last 
l' v e centuries through ongoing deforestation 
(Fig. 1). 
Distinguishing between the impacts of ancient 
a, id recent isolation of tody populations requires 
turther research. Regardless of the cause of vocal 
differentiation, we suggest that more detailed 
studies are needed to explore the extent to which 
ttle tod ys’ two vocally-distinct populations repre- 
SLnl incipient species” on Cuba. We believe that 
11 w ould be important to investigate the functions 
°t song in Cuban Todies: whether singing is 
entirely for mate attraction or serves both for mate 
attraction and territorial defense (Payne 1979; 
Gibson 1989; Westcott 1992, 1997), or even 
Aether the song serves as a contact communica- 
tl()n in mixed-species flocks (Catchpole and Slater 
5), in which we have also observed singing by 
L1 btm Todies. We believe studies of additional 
S pecies of birds, looking for consistent geographic 
Patterns in vocal differentiation, will also have a 
ro e in helping us understand the evolution of tody 
Realizations, and more generally in understand- 
ln £ the evolutionary history of the Cuban 
avifauna. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
We are indebted to our students (Jovany Rojas, Anay 
Serrano, and Yanairis Medina) for help during the field 
trips. We thank Patricia Rodriguez, Hiram Rodriguez, and 
Daysi Rodriguez for comments on early versions of the 
manuscript and especially Wesley Hochachka for his 
constructive comments. We thank our colleagues: Eduardo 
Inigo, Greg Budney. and John Fitzpatrick from the Cornell 
Laboratory of Ornithology for inspiring our work on bird 
bioacoustics. This research was supported by Projects 
“Salvando un area de vida silvestre unica en el Caribe" 
and “Estudio para la conservation de poblaciones de aves 
amenazadas de Cuba”. 
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