Jim, et. al.:
I haven't heard a grasshopper sparrow do this, they usually just sing their
familiar song here. Although grasshopper sparrows are not abundant here, I
hear them all the time since a few breed around here (Jug Bay and Southern
PG County). By any chance could there have been chipping sparrows there
also? I ask because I've heard chippies make a "bubbly" song just as you
described - I've heard it quite a lot from them (when I know it was a chipping
sparrow). I don't know what their bubbly song means, though I would like to
know why they use it - if there is a reason. The chippies do it here frequently
enough, and since I hear grasshopper sparrows a lot but I have not heard
them do the bubbly song (yet), I don't think grasshopper sparrows use it
commonly here. I wonder, was the grasshopper sparrow visible when you herd
the bubbly song? Usually when I hear the chippies do it, they seem excited
about something (fussing over a grounded fledgling, perhaps?), but they are
almost always OUT OF SIGHT when they make it. Unlike their trill; although
they aren't always visible while trilling, OFTEN they can be seen conspicuously
perched when they trill.
Perhaps grasshopper, chipping, and other species of sparrows all make this
bubbly song? And do they all do it from out of sight?
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD
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