Animals with Accents Based on Their Area.

I experienced something really cool yesterday.

At my house, the cardinal sings a very specific song, and I have remembered it doing it that way ever since I was a kid.

Yesterday, I was at a meeting in a different town, and afterwards I was walking back to my car, and I heard a cardinal. I heard it's first couple notes, expecting the usual serenade to follow. But this cardinal finished its song with a different melody!

I remember saying WOW! I should mention this on ATS. So I am.

A few years back I recall reading an article that talks about this very thing.

I was wondering if you personally have any examples or stories of this?

Also wanted to add, what may cause this?

Is it climate? elevation? other wildlife in the area? It is very intriguing to me.

You should hear our birds with our southern accent down here in south Georgia.

They have our accent because they hear us talking from the time their egg cracks.

You can really tell the difference when the northern birds fly south for the winter.

I think it has to do with the different area/animals.

I'm looking up a documentary for you by David Attenborough which goes into how monkeys evolved into different species with different calls etc.
Ultimately leading to us ofcourse.

Hold on haha

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


Best story I've read along this line was of a bird fancier watching Pro Golf on TV who realized the audible calls that accompanied video of the greens was impossible. He knew those specific birds were not found in that area, and he called the station. He was right, they just used whatever soundtrack was available that seemed to go nicely with the footage they were showing.

I thought it was pretty cool that someone would know their birds that well.

^haha nice one.

@OP

I believe its the series/documentary "Life On Earth".
couldn't find the bit I meant but its a nice watch any way.

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


Reminds me of a conversation I had with one of my Terps in the Balkans. I asked him how he came to speak English so well. He said everyone should learn the language, amonst others so we can learn to get along.

I heard a dog barking in the distance and told him, "Wow! even the dogs speak the same here as back home!" We had a chuckle over that. good times.

haha

I know that Crows are suppose to have one of the most sophisticated languages in the animal kingdom. I've always been fond of crows and the mystique that they carry, and living up north in Philly I'd listen to them outside of my apartment window all the time. When I moved back down to NC I definitely noticed a change in pitch and length of tone. I noticed again these subtle differences when I was in London some years back, and noticed their calls being almost completely different.

Here's a link discussing bird dialects:

Different Places, Different Dialects

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


I always imagined Apes talking with a classy British accent.

This is very true OP.My line of work is zoology .Growing up in New Zealand I was very used to the day to day sound of the introduced common European House Sparrow .New Zealand also has the introduced Tree Sparrow, although I never saw one .Moving to Australia, I noticed as soon as I exited the plane these sparrows hoping around the grounds,I first took notice of their vocalizations as I had never heard them before .I thought to myself, yeah my first Tree Sparrows .But no they where they were the same old House Sparrow I was used too.Very different dialect/accent .I am now aware of this whereever I travel .I have now seen both species of these sparrows and in their native habitat of Europe and again a different dialect ! Very interesting isn't it ! Thanks for sharing OP .

reply to post by 13th Zodiac


Definitely.

Okay, so we seem to all agree on birds.

Have you ever heard of any other animal sounding different based on area?

Here's a good article about how the mating songs of whales migrate. Quite possibly something similar with non-migratory birds.