Doug Von Gausig, you wrote:
> Song sparrows have a particular "style" that they all use. It's a
> combination of the high, clear piping notes and "burry", or "slurred"
> notes, and usually a rapid trill. Not only do the birds in different
> areas
> sing different songs, but a single individual may go through 20 or so
> variations in one performance. They usually sing the same song
> through 5-10
> iterations, then switch to another, then another, etc. But in any
> case, the
> song is a combination of piping, burry notes and trill that taken
> together
> are diagnostic of the species. Also the habitat is a strong indicator,
> since Song Sparrows inhabit marshy areas, and most birds that can be
> mistaken for them (Bewick's Wren, for instance) do not. The Song
> Sparrow's
> call (that slurred, nasal single tone) is diagnostic of the species.
Thanks for the explanation.
> By the way, the Red-wings sound a little odd, are you sure they
> weren't
> Tri-colored Blackbirds? Do the birds on your recording sound typical
> for
> Red-winged in that area?
I didn't get a visual, so your guess may be better than mine.
I listened to tricolors on Peterson's, Keller's, and Stokes' CDs,
though, and didn't hear a match. In other parts of my recording there
were lots of clear descending notes that most of the red-wing examples
include. Do tricoloreds make that note?
Do the species mix? This was dawn, March 3, near a farm pond at about
1500 ft.
-Dan Dugan
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