A new study reports that female Rufous-collared Sparrows prefer males who sing the local dialect of their song. Captured females were four times more likely to respond with a mating display to a recording of a local song than of playback of a song recorded just fifteen miles away from their home territory.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
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