This is not a practice I engage in, but I thought it was interesting to to
read Sibley's article about playback where he mentions that in one study, a
certain songbird gained in status when challenging a perceived intruder and
then apparently "winning" when it stopped singing.
Which is to say that the science is murky. Obviously I believe in erring on
the side of caution, and generally disdain most practices of luring birds
in for photos, but I think hard answers about the effects can be hard to
come by. This is in no way disagreeing with Wayne, whose response I think
is appropriate.
Brodie
On Tue, Jun 26, 2018, 13:56 Wayne Hoffman <whoffman@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi -
Research on several species (not Chats, to my knowledge) has shown that
playback of species-specific calls to territorial birds can cause
behavioral changes that are potentially disruptive of nesting. So in
general it is not a good thing to do. Concern is greater with rare
species, on the theory that such disruption is more consequential for
less-successful species. Chats are abundant in some parts of their range,
and pretty uncommon in others.
Wayne
On 6/26/2018 1:38:06 PM, Margaret Stephens <mlstep@xxxxxxx> wrote:
OK to use loud and repeated recordings of Yellow Breasted Chat at this
time of year to obtain a photograph?