Received: 10 August 2016 | Accepted: 19 August 2016 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2475 ORIGINAL RESEARCH Sky island bird populations isolated by ancient genetic barriers are characterized by different song traits than those isolated by recent deforestation Chetana B. Purushotham | V. V. Robin National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Abstract Bangalore, India Various mechanisms of isolation can structure populations and result in cultural and Correspondence genetic differentiation. Similar to genetic markers, for songbirds, culturally transmitted V. V. Robin, National Institute of Advanced sexual signals such as breeding song can be used as a measure of differentiation as Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore, India and Indian Institute of songs can also be impacted by geographic isolation resulting in population- level differ- Science Education and Research Tirupati, ences in song structure. Several studies have found differences in song structure ei- Tirupati, India Email:
[email protected] ther across ancient geographic barriers or across contemporary habitat barriers owing to deforestation. However, very few studies have examined the effect of both ancient Present address: V. V. Robin, Indian Institute of Science barriers and recent deforestation in the same system. In this study, we examined the Education and Research Tirupati, Tirupati, geographic variation in song structure across six populations of the White- bellied India Shortwing, a threatened and endemic songbird species complex found on isolated Funding information mountaintops or “sky islands” of the Western Ghats. While some sky islands in the CEPF-ATREE, Grant/Award Number: Western Ghats Small Grants Program system are isolated by ancient valleys, others are separated by deforestation.