Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 16:29:13 +0000 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: John McKitterick Subject: Re: Translingual birds Kathy: The song of that sparrow did not have the rhythmic structure of the typical song sung on territory. But your note pushed me to look a bit farther, and on the Cornell web site for song sparrows (http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/SONSPA) is a note: "First-year birds may sing an autumnal song, a low, connected warbling that sounds more like the song of a Purple Finch than that of the Song Sparrow." So my song sparrow was probably a first year bird, and not translingual at all... John McKitterick > Isn't birding fun? Always something different to tease our minds and > souls! There are many races of Song Sparrow and this could have been a > migrant. There is a tremendous variation in Song Sparrow songs (at > least on the recordings I have used in the past). > > Cheers, > Kathy > > Kathy Klimkiewicz, Biologist > USGS Patuxent WRC BBL > 12100 Beech Forest RD STE 4037 > Laurel MD 20708-4037 > 301-497-5795 work > Fax 301-497-5717 > Kathy_Klimkiewicz@usgs.gov > www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================