{"id":774,"date":"2009-10-09T21:28:15","date_gmt":"2009-10-10T03:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/?p=774"},"modified":"2016-11-25T08:46:47","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T14:46:47","slug":"pacific-wren-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/archives\/774","title":{"rendered":"Pacific Wren, Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_782\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-782\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pacific_wren.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-782 \" title=\"pacific_wren\" src=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pacific_wren-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Pacific Wren, Seattle, Washington. Photo by Tom Talbott (Creative Commons license 2.0).\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pacific_wren-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pacific_wren.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-782\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pacific Wren, Seattle, Washington. Photo by Tom Talbott (Creative Commons license 2.0).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The American Ornithologists&#8217; Union Checklist Committee recently updated its <a title=\"http:\/\/www.aou.org\/committees\/nacc\/proposals\/2009-A.pdf\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aou.org\/committees\/nacc\/proposals\/2009-A.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"> slate of taxonomic proposals<\/a>.\u00a0 Lots of exciting stuff here, including proposed species status for our old friend, the South Hills Crossbill, and a split of Western Scrub-Jay.\u00a0 The proposed split I want to focus on today, though, is one that&#8217;s long in coming, and quite likely to pass, in my opinion: the split of Winter Wren into eastern and western North American species.<\/p>\n<p>Why split the Winter Wren?\u00a0 For starters, eastern and western populations are 8.8% divergent in their mitochondrial DNA.\u00a0 (Trust me, that&#8217;s a lot.)\u00a0 Songs and calls differ diagnosably.\u00a0 Furthermore, the two forms nest side-by-side in the northern Canadian Rockies without interbreeding.\u00a0 Analysis of vocalizations and genetics haven&#8217;t turned up anything that really looks like a hybrid.\u00a0 Really, this looks like a pretty straightforward split, even by the &#8220;old&#8221; biological species criteria.<\/p>\n<p>So, it looks like come next summer, we&#8217;ll probably have a new taxonomy in the genus:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Winter Wren, <em>Troglodytes troglodytes<\/em>: <\/strong>breeding from east-central British Columbia east across Canada and down through the Appalachians; wintering in the eastern United States, mostly east of the Great Plains.\u00a0 It&#8217;s highly likely that this species will eventually be split from the Eurasian birds, in which case the scientific name of our Winter Wren would revert to <strong><em>Troglodytes hiemalis<\/em><\/strong>, a direct translation of its common name in America (Eurasian birds are usually just called &#8220;Wren&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pacific Wren, <em>Troglodytes pacificus<\/em><\/strong>: breeding in Alaska through the northern Rockies to the Yellowstone area and down the Pacific coastline to Central California; mostly non-migratory, though wandering casually southward in winter.\u00a0 The distinctive Aleutian birds would be included in this species.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How do you tell the two apart by sound?\u00a0 For today, we&#8217;ll look at the calls, which is the easiest way to identify them, especially in winter.<\/p>\n<h4>Calls<\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_805\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-805\" style=\"width: 477px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/wiwr-ndp2006-10-32-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-805\" title=\"wiwr-ndp2006-10-32-2\" src=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/wiwr-ndp2006-10-32-2.jpg\" alt=\"Winter Wren calls, Phillips County, Arkansas, 30 March 2006.\" width=\"477\" height=\"274\" srcset=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/wiwr-ndp2006-10-32-2.jpg 477w, http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/wiwr-ndp2006-10-32-2-300x172.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-805\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Winter Wren calls, Phillips County, Arkansas, 30 March 2006.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-774-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/wiwrc-ndp2006-10-32.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/wiwrc-ndp2006-10-32.mp3\">http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/wiwrc-ndp2006-10-32.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<figure id=\"attachment_803\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-803\" style=\"width: 477px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pawr-ndp2009-08-63-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-803\" title=\"pawr-ndp2009-08-63-1\" src=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pawr-ndp2009-08-63-1.jpg\" alt=\"Pacific Wren calls, Humboldt County, California, 28 March 2009.\" width=\"477\" height=\"274\" srcset=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pawr-ndp2009-08-63-1.jpg 477w, http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pawr-ndp2009-08-63-1-300x172.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-803\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pacific Wren calls, Humboldt County, California, 28 March 2009.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-774-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pawrc-ndp2009-08-63.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pawrc-ndp2009-08-63.mp3\">http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/pawrc-ndp2009-08-63.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>With direct comparison of soundtracks and spectrograms, the differences are obvious.\u00a0 The Winter Wren&#8217;s call is much clearer, with discrete harmonic bands; both spectrographically and aurally it is reminiscent of the <a title=\"http:\/\/www.xeno-canto.org\/recording.php?XC=35941\" href=\"http:\/\/www.xeno-canto.org\/recording.php?XC=35941\" target=\"_blank\">call of Song Sparrow<\/a>.\u00a0 The Pacific Wren, by contrast, has a call that is much noisier and higher-pitched, and, on average, slightly briefer.\u00a0 It is often compared to the <a title=\"http:\/\/www.xeno-canto.org\/recording.php?XC=14194\" href=\"http:\/\/www.xeno-canto.org\/recording.php?XC=14194\" target=\"_blank\">call of Wilson&#8217;s Warbler<\/a>.\u00a0 Although the call may not look higher-pitched on the spectrogram (since the minimum and maximum frequencies of both calls are about the same), note that the darkest part of the Pacific Wren spectrogram (and therefore the loudest part of the call) tends to concentrate around 6-7 kHz, while the darkest part of the Winter Wren spectrogram comes in at about half that.\u00a0 This accounts for the perceptual difference in pitch.<\/p>\n<p>In my next post I&#8217;ll look at how to tell these two species apart by song.\u00a0 As these two are both fantastic singers, it will be a melodious post indeed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The American Ornithologists&#8217; Union Checklist Committee recently updated its slate of taxonomic proposals.  Lots of exciting stuff here, including proposed species status for our old friend, the South Hills Crossbill, and a split of Western Scrub-Jay.  The proposed split I want to focus on today, though, is one that&#8217;s long in coming, and quite likely to pass, in my opinion: the split of Winter Wren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,16],"tags":[71,72,70,69],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-id","category-news","category-taxonomy","tag-pacific-wren","tag-troglodytes-pacificus","tag-troglodytes-troglodytes","tag-winter-wren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5096,"href":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/5096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}