Cultural and morphological divergence of Darwin’s cactus finches ( Geospiza scandens ) across Galápagos Islands

Understanding the divergence of cultural traits, such as bird song, provides critical insights into evolutionary processes. In geographically isolated populations, the divergence of traits associated with mate choice can lead to further genetic separation. This study investigates divergence in song syllable types, acoustic characteristics, singing behavior, and morphology in two allopatric populations of Darwin’s cactus finch ( Geospiza scandens ) on Floreana and Santa Cruz Islands in the Galápagos Archipelago. Using song recordings of 50 males, we identified 25 syllable types with no overlap between islands, indicating a complete divergence in syllable repertoires. Syllables of Floreana and Santa Cruz males diverged in the acoustic space largely due to broader frequency bandwidths on Floreana. Moreover, Floreana males had smaller beaks than Santa Cruz males. Despite acoustic and morphological divergence, singing behaviors - like syllable repetition rate and number of syllables per song - did not differ significantly. Both cultural processes, including drift and transmission biases, as well as selection on morphology could have contributed to the observed acoustic divergence. This study adds to a growing literature on the role of geographic separation in the accumulation of both cultural and morphological divergence between populations. Future research could interrogate speciation scenarios in cactus finches if populations cease to interbreed after secondary contact.