Dan,
Your blackbirds do sound kind of unusual compared to what I'm used to
hearing, almost like Red-wingeds raised in a Tri-colored foster
home. It made me smile to listen to them! To tell the truth, I
don't feel comfortable personally calling which species it is. I've
not had much experience with the Tri-colored. It's true that the Red-
winged is quite variable, not even coming close to "conk-a-ree" in
some parts of the country.
Once you get this nailed down, please let us know what you've decided!
And Doug, thanks for the thoughtful notes on Song sparrows. I've
noticed the same thing that Alexia mentioned, that I can become
familiar with the tone of voice and recognize a species sometimes
with just a few notes. That's how I recognized Dan's California
Towhee, after just a few first notes. Like the voice of an old friend.
Regarding the community of birds passing along a song type: some
might consider this the rudiments of "culture." White-crowned
sparrows in the same neighborhood all start sounding the same, just
like rock-and-roll singers do. There is a lot of mimicking of style
and striving to sound like everyone else. Everyone wants to sound
like the other guy who is getting all the chicks.
I recently watched a nature documentary on the culture of chimpanzees
learning new tricks and behaviors from each other. The documentary
implied that this evidence of "culture" was unusual in the animal
kingdom and proved our close relation to chimps. Sure we're close,
but cultural transmission of behaviors is widespread. Check out any
group of dolphins, coyotes, elephants, parrots, or house finches
figuring out how to use your backyard bird feeders. Songbirds (and
killer whales) pass on culturally learned music styles and have been
doing so long before we figured it out as a species.
Well, back to recording,
Kevin Colver
On May 25, 2008, at 11:08 PM, Dan Dugan wrote:
> 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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