Archaic Dialect of Chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs (Passeriformes, Fringillidae), Song in the Lower-Dnipro Area (South Ukraine) and Its Territorial Relations

Abstract

Archaic song dialect of Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758) is located in the Lower-Dnipro Area. To describe it, we recorded 11673 songs of 2008 males from 43 localities in Southern Ukraine during 2004–2015. This dialect has compound spatial structure and connects with other dialects forming a well developed contact area with them. Its core was located in old forests of the lower stream of the Dnipro River. It has spread from them to the new forests in their outskirts. The complex is separated at dialect level in the cluster analysis. It includes considerable number of original song types. Their elements and structure demonstrate archaic features similar to those of other southern complexes but more modern than the old Carpathian and Danube dialects. It occupies the intermediate position between them and modern dialects of the Forest and Wood-and-Steppe Ukraine by the structure of song and is similar to the dialect of Crimean Chaffinch and the song complex of South-Eastern Ukraine.