Syllable Sharing among North American Populations of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow

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Abstract
The nest adverstisement and defense song of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) was examined for evidence of syllable sharing among populations. Twenty Eurasian Tree Sparrows were introduced into North America at St. Louis, Missouri [USK] in 1870 (Widmann 1889). The populations subsequently expanded north and northeastward into Illinois and now numbers approximately 150,000 birds. Four populations were sampled, the closest site to St. Louis lying 85 km to the north, Jaccard''s coefficient was used to assess the degree of syllable sharing among the populations sampled. Several syllables were found to be unique to one or two populations. A pattern of song similarity between populations was found that did not correspond to geographic distances between samples sites but may correspond to the direction of spread of the population.