Greetings, On the topic of birds singing the "wrong song". I was just last week lured up a steep incline to a softly calling Great-crested Flycatcher song. This would have been the first record for the state, and there was something about the call that wasn't quite "Great-crested Flycatcher - the lack of volume mostly. About 100 yards up the compromising grade, I spotted sporadic, quick movement bouncing from branch to branch. I had to laugh to myself as the bird that had lured me off the trail was far from the greatness of the Great-crested Flycatcher. It was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher that must have learned the call from a GC Flycatcher. Although it lacked the sheer volume in call and was a little raspy, the call was very convincing enough for me to want to check it out. In my notes that day, in jest I added a new species to my list (one that ABA, and all other birding organizations will not officially recognize), the Great-crested Gnatcatcher. Yes, just when you thought you've seen or heard it all, our winged friends seem to keep us on our toes! I admit that I'm a "lazy" birder (some might call it efficient) in that I've tried to study/learn the bird calls well enough to be able to ID solely by song/call. It's times like this that I humbly concede that the birds always throw us twists . . . thus, the hike up the hill for a proper ID. As always, there's no substitute to being in the field to be taught something new! Bird On! Chris Barrigar Bloomfield, MO. Stoddard Co. 1chrisbarrigar@xxxxxxxx chrisbarrigar@xxxxxxxxxxx http://community.webshots.com/user/photosbychris http://community.webshots.com/user/photosbychris1 From: Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [TN-Bird] Re: Montgomery Bell SP, Apr 18, 2012 Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:59:40 +0000 I always enjoy the interesting discussion on birds singing the wrong song (blue-winged and golden-winged warbler recently, among others), variations in a usual song, and similarities between species. This comes up annually here and is always a learning experience. We all struggle with bird songs no matter how experienced. Keeps birding interesting. Couple other examples to consider if interested: At Radnor Lake on Wed morning with the NTOS morning walk, I was with a small group including Chloe Walker and we heard one typical Northern Parula and a second singing bird that was more Cerulean-like. Parulas do sing a second song that is more similar to a Cerulean, but Chloe hadn't heard it before (I think) and I haven't heard it in many years in spite of spending significant time in the field with Parulas over the years. We never saw the bird, but I thought it was a Parula simply by the tone of the voice, which was less "muffled" or however I could describe the difference in tone between a Parula and Cerulean. The meat of the song wasn't good for an actual Cerulean, but it was one of those birds that had us uncertain. We chocked it up as "not sure." Of course when we went to look for the bird, it stopped singing. I had a technician years before I moved to TN that could never tell Hooded and Swainson's Warbler apart. This is a fairly common pair of species that cause trouble for folks. The hooded's in the deep south sing the rising second song "wanna rent a video" at least 80% of the time (if not 95% of the time), and rarely sing the typical "cherri cherri cherri-io" song that we all learned as the typical Hooded song. Hooded's at our site sang the song of rising notes, while all the Swainson's (and we had a lot) sang the very loud, clear, 3 note descending call ending with a sharp "whip-poor-will" (also my favorite bird song). We worked on the ID all spring and the tech never could tell the difference, but that person was very good with Chestnut-sided and Magnolia Warblers, which to this day confuse me a lot. I have to see those birds singing, esp. on migration and away from breeding grounds. Maybe it is personal perception, but Magnolia and Chestnut-sided sound more distinct and less varied on breeding grounds in East TN than the migrants we get through middle TN and other places in the south. Maybe migrants are singing half-hearted, or maybe there's some regional dialects from northern breeders we hear from migrants, or maybe I just have them so confused in my head..... At Bridgestone-Firestone Centennial Wilderness (Van Buren Co.), TWRA has been doing some bird monitoring on the Big Bottom Unit on the south end adjacent to Fall Creek Falls for a couple years. Last year after the first morning of surveys, Melinda Welton and I discussed how few Prairie Warblers there were (they are abundant on the study site), but several Field Sparrows (also very abundant) had a buzzy upticked buzz at the end of the song. The next morning we paid attention to the songs and made effort to SEE those funny singing Field Sparrows, but SAW many Prairie Warbler's singing a perfect Field Sparrow song with a buzzy rise at the end. We noted all the wrong singing Prairie's on our data sheets for the rest of the week. Turns out about 60% of the Prairie Warblers were singing the "wrong" song. I've seen this at Catoosa WMA before, but don't know how widespread this switch is. The point of this ramble is we all have birds that confuse us with their "typical" songs and we get headaches when they mix things up. We all have much to learn about bird songs (and refresh on every year) and we learn a little more every year as we get more experience. Maybe, just maybe, someday I'll be correct on most Magnolia and Chestnut-sided Warblers I hear in spring away from breeding grounds. I can hope anyway. Chasing down every bird for a look is a lot of work;) Birding is always an adventure. Cheers, Scott Somershoe From: Bill Pulliam <littlezz@xxxxxxxxx> Subject: [TN-Bird] Re: Montgomery Bell SP, Apr 18, 2012 Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:26:10 -0500 Yellow-rumped Warblers can sound like a lot of other warblers, including Nashville, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, and Canada. Suspected early arrivals for all of these need to be considered carefully if they are heard-only! As for the Swainson's: With practice, Swainson's has a distinctive quality to its tone that will help eliminate Hooded and Louisiana Waterthrush if heard well. To my ear the waterthrush is a little clearer, more whistled; the Swainson's is the most flute-like and mysterious (and hence my favorite of these three songs). But these are SUBTLE and SMALL differences. What I rely on for positively ID- ing a Swainson's is a combination of two features in addition to the quality. First, the introductory notes are very similar to each other; if anything the first is slightly lower in pitch than those that follow it. The Waterthrush generally drifts down in pitch during the introduction (exceptions to all rules). Second is the closing phrase. It has to be clear and right on -- "switch-a- WEEoh." The pitch and stress accents have to all be in the right places. With a combination of all three features (tonal quality, pattern of introduction, crisp and properly accented closing sequence) I am comfortable calling a heard-only Swainson's even where they are fairly rare. I have not always been able to track these birds down, but when I have succeeded they have always been the real thing. Swainson's is one of only two regularly-occurring warblers in this region that I do not have on the yard list (Connecticut being the other). Even in migration in non-breeding areas they don't show up where there is not abundant bottomland undergrowth. Privet will do in a pinch for a migrant, but there has to be some kind of heavy cover. Bill Pulliam Hohenwald TN State Ornithologist Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency P.O. Box 40747 Nashville, TN 37204 615-781-6653 (office) 615-781-6654 (fax)