[texbirds] Re: Golden-cheeked Warbler song [GCWA]
- From: Chuck Sexton <gcwarbler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: TexBirds TexBirds Posting <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2014 08:41:04 -0500
Ronnie,
That truly is a weird Golden-cheeked song. The last song phrase on your
recording adds a couple of extra notes which gives me clues as to what’s
happening.
It is a poorly formed “B” song, the phrase for which I use is “please PLEASE
your TEA-cher”. Your singer just utters the first three notes; the clear
broken (dropping) third note being the “your” (a poor word substitute in this
case).
In my experience, these poorly formed songs are almost invariably uttered by
second-year males, i.e. one-year-olds. Among “A” songs of the GCWA, this is
commonly expressed as fewer (e.g. 3 or 4) buzzes going up the scale whereas
older birds commonly utter 5 to 8 buzzes. In the more complex B song, it is
evidenced by simply mal-formed song patterns.
Did you happen to study the singing male closely enough to age the male? Most
second-year males will have a slightly less extensive black throat and bib and
may show green streaking in the crown and/or back.
Chuck Sexton
Austin, TXEdit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
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