• picture
  • picture
  • picture
  • picture
Public Radio's Environmental News Magazine (follow us on Google News)

BirdNote: Vocabularies of Birdsong

Air Date: Week of

Sage Thrasher (Photo: © Tom Benson)

Around the world at any given time, a bird is singing, and as BirdNote’s Mary McCann reports, though their songs all differ in type and length, they mostly have the same intention, laying claim to territory and mates.



Transcript

CURWOOD: One of the great pleasures of spring is the birdsong that’s 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 today’s 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 Brewer’s Blackbird, singing to the world from atop a fence post, sounds brusque.
[Brewer’s Blackbird song]
One full song from a Brewer’s Blackbird lasts barely a second.

[Brewer’s Blackbird song]


Brewer’s Blackbird (Photo: © Ken Schneider)

Amazingly, a Henslow’s Sparrow values brevity even more.

[Henslow’s Sparrow song]

That was it. In case you missed it…here it is again.

[Henslow’s 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? He’s still going strong...

[Sage Thrasher song]

I’m Mary McCann.


Henslow’s Sparrow (Photo: © Nancy Magnusson)

###

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.
BirdNote’s 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

Brewer’s Blackbird - Kenneth Cole Schneider https://www.flickr.com/photos/zonotrichia/5548989126

Henslow’s 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

 

Links

Learn more about these birdsongs and their species on BirdNote

 

Living on Earth wants to hear from you!

Living on Earth
62 Calef Highway, Suite 212
Lee, NH 03861
Telephone: 617-287-4121
E-mail: comments@loe.org

Newsletter [Click here]

Donate to Living on Earth!
Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice.

Newsletter
Living on Earth offers a weekly delivery of the show's rundown to your mailbox. Sign up for our newsletter today!

Sailors For The Sea: Be the change you want to sea.

Creating positive outcomes for future generations.

Innovating to make the world a better, more sustainable place to live. Listen to the race to 9 billion

The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment: Committed to protecting and improving the health of the global environment.

Contribute to Living on Earth and receive, as our gift to you, an archival print of one of Mark Seth Lender's extraordinary wildlife photographs. Follow the link to see Mark's current collection of photographs.

Buy a signed copy of Mark Seth Lender's book Smeagull the Seagull & support Living on Earth