Michael.stankov

M. melodia article rough draft

( My initial edits to the Wiki Page for M. melodia. Changes include: Merging of the seperate "Eggs" section with the general "description" section, the clarification of wording in several places, and the addition of a "Physiology" section.)

The song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) is a medium-sized American sparrow. Among the native sparrows in North America, it is easily one of the most abundant, variable and adaptable species.

For the adverb easily, <citation needed>. Snark aside, I feel like this does not fit with the wikipedia tone. EvinYZhao (talk) 02:50, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

@Michael.stankov: Michael, thanks for your perspicacious comments on Evin's Griffon vulture contribution! Rico.schultz (talk) 16:38, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Description 

Adult song sparrows have brown upper-parts with dark streaks on the back and are white underneath with dark streaking and a dark brown spot in the middle of the breast. They have a brown cap and a long brown rounded tail. Their face is gray with a streak through the eye. They are highly variable in size across numerous subspecies (for subspecies details, see below). The body length ranges from 11 to 18 cm (4.3 to 7.1 in) and wingspan can range from 18 to 25.4 cm (7.1 to 10.0 in).[1][2] Body mass ranges from 11.9 to 53 g (0.42 to 1.87 oz),.[3] The average of all races is 32 g (1.1 oz) but the widespread nominate subspecies (M. m. melodia) weighs only about 22 g (0.78 oz) on average. The maximum lifespan in the wild is 11.3 years.[4] The eggs of the Song sparrow are brown with greenish white spots. Females lay three to five eggs per clutch, with an average incubation time of 13-15 days before hatching.

In the field, they are most easily confused with the Lincoln's sparrow and the Savannah sparrow. The former can be recognized by its shorter, greyer tail and the differently-patterned head, the brown cheeks forming a clear-cut angular patch. The Savannah sparrow has a forked tail and yellowish flecks on the face when seen up close.

Distribution and life history 

Though a habitat generalist, the song sparrow favors brushland and marshes, including salt marshes, across most of Canada and the United States. They also thrive in human dominated areas, such as in suburban development zones, agricultural fields, and along roadsides. Permanent residents of the southern half of their range, northern populations of the song sparrow migrate to the southern United States or Mexico during winter and intermingle with native permanent populations. The song sparrow is a very rare vagrant to western Europe, with a few recorded in Great Britain and Norway.

These birds forage on the ground, in shrubs or in very shallow water. They mainly eat insects and seeds. Birds in salt marshes may also eat small crustaceans. They nest either in a sheltered location on the ground or in trees or shrubs.

I may be getting the definition wrong, but this section seems to be exclusively dealing with distribution. The second paragraph does not seem to pertain to the section. EvinYZhao (talk) 02:50, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Physiology 

The song sparrow has been the subject of several studies detailing the physiological reactions of bird species to conditions such as daylight length and differing climatic conditions. It has served as model organism for several of these studies which have revealed a great deal about the physiology of birds.

Most birds gain mass in their reproductive organs in response to some signal, either internal or external as the breeding season approaches. The exact source of this signal varies from species to species - for some, it is an endogenous process separate from environmental cues, while other species require extensive external signals of changing daylight length and temperature before beginning to increase the mass of their reproductive organs. Studies of M. melodia found that males of this species gain significant testicular mass in response both to changes in the daily photo-period and as a result of standard endogenous chemical signals.[5] Females also undergo significant ovarian growth in response to both photo-period and endogenous signals - a trait uncommon within the taxa. Hormone levels in both males and females were found to have cycles of fluctuation throughout the breeding season, having very high levels in March and late April and then declining until May, at which point they increased again[6]. These studies suggest that there are multiple factors at work that influence when and how the song sparrow breeds other than just increasing day length.

Due to the myriad subspecies of the song sparrow and the extremely varied climate of southern California, where many of these subspecies make their homes, physiological studies were undertaken to determine how climatic conditions and local environment influenced the bill size of M. melodia subspecies. The bill of a bird is highly important for thermoregulation as the bare surface area makes a perfect place to radiate excess heat or absorb solar energy to maintain homeostasis.[7] Knowing this, comparisons of bill length between individual song sparrows collected in different habitats were made with regard to the primary habitat type that they were collected in. The multitude of M. melodia subspecies examined were often defined by differing beak sizes based upon the microclimate in which they were collected - larger beaks correlated more strongly with hotter microclimates than they did with varying latitude - a correlation that follows from the conditions of Allen's Rule[8].

Good stuff on thermoregulation. EvinYZhao (talk) 02:50, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Song 

Singing in Delaware USA The sparrow species derives it name from its colorful repertoire of songs. Enthusiasts report that one of the songs heard often in suburban locations closely resembles the opening four notes of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. The male uses a fairly complex song to declare ownership of its territory and attract females.

Singing itself consists of a combination of repeated notes, quickly passing isolated notes, and trills. The songs are very crisp, clear, and precise, making them easily distinguishable by human ears. A particular song is determined not only by pitch and rhythm but also by the timbre of the trills. Although one bird will know many songs—as many as 20 different tunes with as many as 1000 improvised variations on the basic theme,[citation needed]—unlike thrushes, the song sparrow usually repeats the same song many times before switching to a different song.

Song sparrows typically learn their songs from a handful of other birds that have neighboring territories. They are most likely to learn songs that are shared in common between these neighbors. Ultimately, they will choose a territory close to or replacing the birds that they have learned from. This allows the song sparrows to address their neighbors with songs shared in common with those neighbors. It has been demonstrated that song sparrows are able to distinguish neighbors from strangers on the basis of song, and also that females are able to distinguish (and prefer) their mate's songs from those of other neighboring birds, and they prefer songs of neighboring birds to those of strangers.

The fact that this is exclusive to Delaware leads me to think this is better suited for a subspecies page. The last sentence in this section has very strange syntax. EvinYZhao (talk) 02:50, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Predators and parasites 

Common predators of the song sparrow include cats, hawks, and owls. On occasion, snakes, dogs, and the American kestrel have been known to prey upon the song sparrow, but are not primary predatory threats to the species. The song sparrow recognizes enemies by both instinctual and learned patterns (including cultural learning), and adjusts its future behavior based on both its own experiences in encounters, and from watching other birds interact with the enemies. Comparisons of experiments on hand-raised birds to observation of birds in the wild suggest that the fear of owls and hawks is instinctual, but fear of cats is learned.

Song sparrows' nests are parasitized by the brown-headed cowbird. The cowbirds' eggs closely resemble song sparrows' eggs, although the cowbirds' eggs are slightly larger. Song sparrows recognize cowbirds as a threat and attack the cowbirds when they are near the nest. There is some evidence that this behavior is learned rather than instinctual. A more recent study found that the behavior of attacking female cowbirds near nests may actually attract cowbird parasitism because the female cowbirds use such behavior to identify female song sparrows that are more likely to successfully raise a cowbird chick. One study found that while cowbird parasitism did result in more nest failure, overall there were negligible effects on song sparrow populations when cowbirds were introduced to an island. The study pointed to a number of explanatory factors including song sparrows raising multiple broods, and song sparrows' abilities to raise cowbird chicks with their own.

Subspecies 

The song sparrow is a cryptic species with 24 native North American subspecies currently recognized (though 52 were originally named). Few organisms have this much biodiversity below the species level, and the sheer number of M. melodia subspecies rivals that of such organisms as the horned lark, the yellow wagtail, the golden whistler or the island thrush. The currently recognized subspecies and their identifying marks are listed by geographic region below.

Conservation status 

The song sparrow is a widespread and common species whose population has been stable for the last 40 years - as such, it is classified as a Species of Least Concern by the IUCN. The subspecies mailliardi, maxillaris, samuelis (all Category 3), pusillula (Category 2), and graminea (Category 1) are listed as Species of Special Concern in California.

References  

eNature: Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia

The Cornell lab of ornithology: Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia

CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), ISBN 978-0849342585.

Wasser, D. E.; Sherman, P. W. (2010). "Avian longevities and their interpretation under evolutionary theories of senescence". Journal of Zoology 280 (2): 103. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2009.00671.x.

Wingfield, John C. (1993). "Control of Testicular Cycles in the Song Sparrow, Melospiza melodia melodia: Interaction of Photoperiod and an Endogenous Program?". General and Comparative Endocrinology. PMID 8138105.

Wingfield, John C. (1984). "Environmental and endocrine control of reproduction in the song sparrow, Melospiza melodia: I. Temporal organization of the breeding cycle". General and Comparative Endocrinology. doi:10.1016/0016-6480(84)90083-2.

Wilmer, Pat (2009). Environmental Physiology of Animals. Wiley. ISBN 9781405107242.

Greenberg, Danner,, R., R.M, (2012). "The influence of the California marine layer on bill size in a generalist songbird". Evolution. PMID 23206140.

Michael, try to format your citations in the right way so that we can see how it will look when your contribution is published. Rico.schultz (talk) 18:53, 26 April 2016 (UTC)

@michael.stankov I just noticed a small issue in the first sentence of your physiology section. Avoid repetition: ‘conditions such as…. climatic conditions’. Rico.schultz (talk) 19:37, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Kitten!

Kitten!

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