---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: David Bailey <davidcbaileyoregon@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, Feb 4, 2019, 14:44
Subject: Re: [obol] Re: California Scrub-Jay "Whisper Song"
To: <alderspr@xxxxxxxx>
Yes, I have heard Steller's Jay's whisper singing near where they have
nested in my Seaside yard a few times and elsewhere on the North Coast. The
song is somewhat finch-like.
David C. Bailey
Seaside Oregon
On Mon, Feb 4, 2019, 08:26 <alderspr@xxxxxxxx wrote:
Steller's Jays do this too, at least at our place about 750' elevation,
eastern foothills of the Coast Range, Benton County. It always confuses me
at first, til I track them down!
Karan Fairchild
------------------------------
*From: *"Robert O'Brien" <baro@xxxxxxx>
*To: *"Matthew G Hunter" <matthewghunter@xxxxxxxxx>
*Cc: *"Oregon Birds Online" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Sent: *Sunday, February 3, 2019 10:27:56 PM
*Subject: *[obol] Re: California Scrub-Jay "Whisper Song"
I first heard this song as a birding kid on the San Francisco peninsula in
the 1950's By then I knew California Jays very well & didn't believe my
ears; then I thought I had made a great discovery. But I did manage to
find reference to in in the meager literature available to me at the local
public library. At that time I spent all my spare time birding, e.g. hours
per every day. I just looked at my bird books of that day and find no
mention of it so I'm not sure where I did find it. Since those glory
birding days, I've heard it very very rarely. But here in Carver at my
place Steller's Jays are the common birds with only occasional scrub jays
from the nearby, more open-county population, usually during nesting when
they come to the feeders.
Bob OBrien Carver OR
On Sun, Feb 3, 2019 at 7:48 PM Matthew G Hunter <matthewghunter@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hi Folks,
I thought a few of you might be interested in this...
A little over a week ago, Lisa McMaster from Portland posted on the
Birding Oregon facebook group a cell-phone video of "her" scrubby singing
to her while it was on a bench in her backyard. Lisa says this bird has
been visiting her feeders for at least 9 years, and is the only one that
will let her hand-feed it. And, she says this is the first time she has
heard the bird "sing" to her.
You can see the original Fb post here,
https://www.facebook.com/groups/birdingoregon/permalink/793517527673137/).
With Lisa's permission I have also uploaded the videos to youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm5WwH07NfM and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsEvuvurL6g. And the sound files were
extracted and uploaded to xeno-canto.org here:
https://www.xeno-canto.org/454465, and https://www.xeno-canto.org/454467.
In almost 40 years of birding in Oregon, I have now heard this "song" in
person only about 5 times. Of the 136 audio recordings and 15 videos in
eBird.org, none of them are of the whisper song. Of the 69 recordings in
xeno-canto.org, none are this whisper song. I have yet to see a field
guide mention it (maybe there is one out there?). The Birds of North
America account online (birdsna.org), published only two years ago
(2017), has this under "Song": "Soft, unstructured sequence of melodious
notes, duration up to 5 min. Given principally during courtship displays by
both sexes when birds are close together (< 25 cm), usually initiated by
male. Tail fanned, head moved back and forth in jerky movements. Also
occasionally produced by solitary jay while perched and otherwise inactive
(TAL)," but ...the account cites only the personal observations of one of
the five authors (versus some other population). I'm sure some of you have
heard this before, but clearly it is a rare event to actually witness it.
However, I was surprised to discover that if one searches the internet
for videos of scrub jay song sings or singing, one can find almost a dozen
videos, some taken with cell phones in back yards.
What's going on here? This at first seems like a bit of a contradiction.
Well, based on my own experience, including my fifth hearing of the song
merely 4 days ago, this "song" is very quiet. A few days ago, when I heard
it for the 5th time ever, I nearly passed it off, as I probably have done
dozens of times, because it is so quiet--I barely noticed it from a jay in
a madrone tree at 50 ft--and especially at that distance it just sounds
like some bird(s) mumbling or perhaps leftover sound from something more
distant, and I tend to pass it off. Most of my experiences actually
witnessing the song have been with the bird merely 6-12 feet above me in a
small tree. Now, if you are someone that feeds birds regularly, and you
frequently are "close" to scrub-jays, you might be more likely to witness
this song. Some of the you-tube videos are clearly from peoples' back yards
where they feed birds. The other factor I think is merely the fact that
literally millions of people have cell phones, and many have cameras with
video capability, and as you know, interesting things are recorded and put
on the internet these days that one might go an entire lifetime without
witnessing. In this way, internet sharing of observations has become de
facto citizen science.
Thanks to Lisa McMaster for sharing her observation. If you're not
familiar with this song, watch the videos and listen to the sound files
linked above (the sound files are louder and show spectrograms), and if you
get a chance, spend a little close time with your local scrub-jay and see
if it might sing to you.
Listening closely to the sounds and looking at the spectrograms, some of
the sounds seem "original" while some sound like they may be imitations of
something. In the second recording there is a sound that is most definitely
like the dive chirp of the Anna's Hummingbird; however, I can't tell for
sure if it was the jay making that sound or if there was in fact an Anna's
Hummingbird diving in the immediate vicinity. I'm leaning toward the latter.
Discoveries await even among the common birds....
Matt Hunter
Umpqua Basin
