Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 19:52:44 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Maurice Barnhill Subject: Re: Black-capped chickadee song? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit My understanding is that the song of Chickadees is learned, hence not entirely reliable for identification. One friend of mine has heard a single bird in the overlap zone sing both songs! The difference in *call* notes is supposed to be genetic and hence somewhat more reliable. There is also the issue of hybrids. David Niles, when banding Chickadees in Northern Delaware, spoke of "New Castle County" [Delaware] Chickadees, which varied all over the lot. Nonetheless, many birds up here in winter consistently look and have calls like Black-cappeds, in contrast to the local breeders which are still present in winter. The Black-cappeds do not show up every year, and there is general agreement among observers about whether or not they are present in any given year. Needless to say, this agreement has not been checked against a genetic analysis. For whatever it may be worth, we are not getting Black-capped Chickadees up here this winter. cast wrote: >In my Erie, Pennsylvania home, I came to identify the two-note song of >the Black-capped chickadee with spring. In my Greenbelt, Maryland >residence, the local Carolina chickadees sing a four-note song instead. >Is that a valid assumption? > >Early this morning, before I had my glasses on and the drapes open, I >heard a very clear two-note chickadee song. Could I have heard a >Black-capped chickadee in my backyard? > >Carolyn Sturtevant >Greenbelt, MD > > >======================================================================= >To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >======================================================================= > > > -- Maurice Barnhill mvb@udel.edu [Use ReplyTo, not From] [bellatlantic.net is reserved for spam only] Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Delaware Newark, DE 19716 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================