BirdNote: Vocabularies of Birdsong

CURWOOD: One of the great pleasures of spring is the birdsong thats suddenly all around us from before dawn till way beyond dusk. And the tunes these songsters create are as varied as they are, as Mary McCann explains in todays BirdNote.

BirdNote
Voices & Vocabularies: Songs Long and Short

MCCANN: Bird songs come in many shapes and sizes. When a Sage Thrasher, perched atop a clump of sagebrush, tips its head back to sing, the notes rush forth.

[Sage Thrasher song]

What you just heard is a mere snippet. Sage Thrashers often sing non-stop for at least two minutes, and can go on for more than twenty. In stark comparison, a Brewers Blackbird, singing to the world from atop a fence post, sounds brusque.
[Brewers Blackbird song]
One full song from a Brewers Blackbird lasts barely a second.

[Brewers Blackbird song]

Brewers Blackbird (Photo: Ken Schneider)

Amazingly, a Henslows Sparrow values brevity even more.

[Henslows Sparrow song]

That was it. In case you missed ithere it is again.

[Henslows Sparrow song]

But whether long-drawn-out or short-and-sweet, bird songs are all about the same things: territory and breeding. Claiming a space and attracting a mate. Once those are sorted out, further singing by the male is all about keeping his territory intact.

[Sage Thrasher song]

As for the Sage Thrasher? Hes still going strong…

[Sage Thrasher song]

Im Mary McCann.

Henslows Sparrow (Photo: Nancy Magnusson)

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Written by Bob Sundstrom
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Sage Thrasher 175693 recorded by G F Budney; Brewer’s Blackbird [188802] recorded by Bob McGuire; Henslow’s Sparrow [188892] recorded by Randolph S Little.
BirdNotes theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Dominic Black
2015 Tune In to Nature.org May 2015 Narrator: Mary McCann

Brewers Blackbird – Kenneth Cole Schneider https://www.flickr.com/photos/zonotrichia/5548989126

Henslows Sparrow – Nancy Magnusson https://www.flickr.com/photos/34312269@N04/7345570276

Sage Thrasher – Tom Benson https://www.flickr.com/photos/40928097@N07/12739808474

http://birdnote.org/show/voices-and-vocabularies-songs-long-and-short

CURWOOD: You can find pictures and more at our website, LOE dot org