t
Date: Fri Mar 16, 2007 1:12 pm ((PDT))
Kroodsma has a discussion about this in his book. Song Sparrows apparently=
learn their songs the first year and don't change them, so these incomplet=
e songs would be young birds firming up their reportoire. Interestingly, o=
ther birds will adapt to the songs of the birds around them, so that early =
in the spring you'd hear lots of this.
Steve Pelikan <> wrote: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE--=
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Matt:
Songs Sparrows around here (Southern Ohio) are doing the same thing
about now. I've never had the sense that they actually seek out water,
but many of them live near it and even more forage near it.
The long, rambling, often incomplete, songs are pretty typical now,
though some birds are already singing full songs. I don't know whether
this "practice singing" is done by everyone as their hormones get reved
up or whether it is primarily from 1st year birds that are still
learning/forming their songs. I'd be glad to hear your views on the
issue as well as suggestions about how to decide the issue without
catching the little fellows.
For several years I've tried to visit the same birds over the course of
several months to see how their singing changed. Of course, most migrate
north and I never find out. But perhaps you can record yours several
times and get an idea what it is doing.
Your 2 microphones in the Telinga work nicely!
Steve P
Matt Goff wrote:
> I spent some time recording a Song Sparrow today. I think it was
> practicing, as the sound and style of the singing was quite a bit
> different than I tend to associate with Song Sparrows while breeding.
> (Many years at this time it would be easy to find Song Sparrows belting
> out their territorial/breeding songs, but this year we've been having an=
> unusual amount of snow, and that seems to have put a damper on the
typical
> spring enthusiasm.)
>
> The bird had situated itself right near a drainspout that had a fair
> amount of water running out of it. I had seen the bird in this area
> several times over the last couple of days (it's one of a very few snow
> free patches of ground). The small area is a good place for the bird
with
> all the snow, but the fact that it had chosen to perch right beside the
> drainspout seemed interesting to me. I was not sure if the location of
> the drainspout was coincidental to the bird's choice, or perhaps it liked=
> singing beside the water.
>
> A writeup of the encounter (along with a link to an appoximately 1 minute=
> clip of the bird) can be found at:
> http://www.sitkanature.org/wordpress/2007/03/15/singing-song-sparrow/
> or, a link directly to the sound file is:
> http://www.sitkanature.org/wordpress/03-15-07song_sparrow.mp3
>
> I recorded the bird with a Telinga dish, two Shure 183s (using a DIY pvc=
> handle setup), and a Sharp minidisc recorder. I suspect there are things=
> I could do to improve the sound, and I would appreciate any suggestions.=
> Obviously the water was pretty loud, but I tried to situate myself so the=
> dish focused on the bird with the dripping water slightly off to the
> side. I would have liked the bird to have been even louder relative to
> the sound of the water, but the bird was only a few inches from the
water,
> so that was not something I could accomplish easily (even though I was
> only a few feet away).
>
> I do have some questions that I'm hoping someone might be able to answer:
> I know Song Sparrows (especially young ones) do practice singing, is the=
> nature of this practice usually extended periods of singing with only
very
> brief pauses? Do Song Sparrows routinely seek out running water to
> practice beside? (This one almost seemed to me to be using the water as
> an accompaniment to its practice, though I thought it could have been
> using the water to cover up its song as well.)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Matt Goff
>
>
>
> "Microphones are not ears,
> Loudspeakers are not birds,
> A listening room is not nature."
> Klas Strandberg
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
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"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
Yahoo! Groups Links
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