Title: Homage to the Hooded
I'm working at a place in northern GA surrounded by nesting hooded warblers, and one seemed to be mimicking an indigo bunting.
Except for the Kirtland's, I'm familiar with the songs of eastern warblers. Most of them I know pretty well because of different places I've lived in the east. Of all the warblers I know, I don't think any (at least in my experience) match the hooded for variety. No one hooded song is "great," but the hooded has so many. I'd say at least 4 distinct ones plus varieties of those.
Yesterday I heard a strange song outside my window where I was working. It sounded like an indigo bunting that had just breathed helium or had, you might say, been kicked btw the legs. What I saw singing was a hooded. Then I realized that right behind me, an indigo bunting was singing. The IB would sing, then the hooded, imitating it, but at a higher pitch. Same rhythms. Of course, this could have been a coincidence. But, at the least, it's another example of the hooded's versatility.
Praise be to the Hooded.
Tim Houghton
Richmond
