Strnadi

The aim of the citizen science project Dialects of Czech Yellowhammers (Nářečí českých strnadů) is to map the distribution of the dialects of the Yellowhammer in Czechia and thus to reveal what influences the stability of bird dialects in the landscape (and the evolution of animal culture in general).
You can also become a citizen scientist filling in previously uncharted areas! Install the mobile app “Strnadi”, register to the project and record the song of the Yellowhammer anywhere in Czechia – whether in your neighbourhood or during trips to the countryside.

Why do we record Yellowhammers?
The Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) is a bird with a simple but very interesting song. It seems that each individual in a particular population sings its own unique combination of phrases, but the final part of the song is shared among birds in a particular region: Yellowhammers have their own dialects.
The original citizen science project Dialects of Czech Yellowhammers, which run between 2011-2016, revealed that Czechia is a country particularly rich in yellowhammer dialects. We have managed, with the aid of numerous volunteers, to map almost the entire territory of the country. This has made Czechia one of the best-studied regions in the world in terms of bird dialects. We have discovered several unusual local dialects that are different from the common ones known from other parts of Europe.
Knowledge of the distribution of bird dialects allows us to investigate many general questions about animal culture: for example, how dialects originate and what maintains them, or how birds respond to changes in their environment. To answer some of these questions, however, it is necessary to collect repeatedly large amounts of data from the whole country, which is essentially impossible without public involvement.
The Yellowhammer is an ideal species for research on bird dialects. Although it is declining in many places, it is still abundant in Czech landscape and its song is simple and easily recognisable. Moreover, Yellowhammers sing for a long time - from early spring to mid-summer.
What are we interested in?
Are the boundaries of yellowhammer dialects stable over time? If not, have they shifted due to recent changes in landscape use (e.g., the "bark beetle calamity" that led to loss of spruce monoculture forests in many regions)? Are the unique local dialects that we discovered ten years ago in several places in Czechia stable, or do they tend to spread or shrink? These are just some of the questions we are going to study.