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 BravoBooger |
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Posts: 1914 (03/02/08 12:27 PM) |
Thanks, poopoe. I used to know all the species but it's been too many years since I practiced. I'm starting to get back into it. Do you know any good
ways to learn to ID birds by their songs?
PS-How can you tell the male from the female sparrow? |
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BoogaWooga |
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Posts: 947 (03/02/08 12:59 PM) |
One thing I'd like to know is how to distinguish between house finches and purple finches. Poopoe?
http://marylandcountrygarden.typepad.com
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poopoe |
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Posts: 4682 (03/02/08 01:09 PM) |
The best way to learn bird song is to get out and see birds singing. I know that sounds simplistic but that is how it
worked best for me in my way of learning.
When I was starting out birding I found the first hard jump was to find the birds based on the noise they were making, Depending on the environment, song coming from high in a tree might sound like it is right in front of you. I then started connecting certain sounds to knowing what bird was producing them and where I was likely to spot the bird. It is like learning the sound of a persons voice. If you never saw the face of someone you could not pick out in a crowd that person if they are not speaking. If you know the face and the voice, when you hear the voice only , you know they are there and will then seek them out based on where you might hear the voice coming from. I would not look for a wren up in a tree, more likely down on a log or low shrub. Same as I would not look for a tanager low in a shrub. then there are friend who don't follow rules, they are fun There are tapes Cd's etc that will have bird song and bird id. Usually they are organized in the same order as a field guide, starting with loons and ending with sparrows. You sometimes find local , common bird song tapes produced by a local Audubon but for the most part they are field guide collections put together by the large publishers, like National Geographic. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and other on line resources like www.enature. com might have on line sounds that you can check. Some of them do require subscription. If you are heading out this spring and say you want to find a Wilson's warbler, a Yellow Warbler and a Common Yellow throat ( all common warblers in wet areas) you might go on line and refresh your ear to all three calls and songs. Finding the birds and actually seeing them sing will help lock in the sound. There are some birds that can only be identified in the field by the sound they make. Flycatchers are notoriously hard to identify by physical feature alone. Where different Emphidonax flycatchers overlap range, if you do not hear it you are only likely to id it as a flycatcher. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Female house sparrows are quite drab and stripy, like the female house finch in the photo. They are short chunky and same shape as the male HS. The male house sparrows have a black breast and face shield. and a rich chestnut crown and back. The quality of the black area is said to be the attractant to the female. Purple finch would have a more rosy hue overall. Peterson referred to the quality as "dipped in raspberry" and when you see a purple you appreciate that their is an overall rosy glow and a more substantial chunky body and bill. Male house finch take on different degree and quality of red ( some are quite yellow to orange) based on the diet they are eating.
Last Edited By: poopoe
03/02/08 08:04 PM.
Edited 2 times.
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Poopoe |
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Posts: 64 (03/02/08 01:15 PM) |
I don't know why YUKU does that in some of my posts. Usually after spell check function
Svmer is icumen in Lhude sing cuccu!
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Poopoe |
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Posts: 67 (03/02/08 02:17 PM) |
Finally, two mediocre shots of Chestnut-backed Chickadee. From one story above down on neighbors feeders.
Svmer is icumen in Lhude sing cuccu!
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BravoBooger |
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Posts: 1915 (03/02/08 02:53 PM) |
The million dollar question is, why are the males in the bird world better usually looking than the females?
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BoogaWooga |
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Posts: 948 (03/02/08 03:21 PM) |
Thanks, Poopoe. I had thought that maybe the purple finches color was a bit more, well, purplish
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Bravobooger, like most birds, it's the females who choose the most fit mate and part of how she gauges that is how colorful and healthy he looks. I guess the extra risks to survival to the males (from being more colorful) are outweighed by the advantage of being chosen to mate and produce offspring.
http://marylandcountrygarden.typepad.com
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Poopoe |
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Posts: 68 (03/02/08 04:11 PM) |
also, females tend to brood the eggs and cryptic color blends better than bold splashy color. Many times birds that nest in open cup nests ( warblers and
vireos tanagers for instance, the females are leaf colored ,pale olive yellow to pale gray greens. The males are boldly patterned.
In nest hollow / cavity birds males and females often look alike sometimes there is a tone or bit of color difference ... woodpeckers, chickadees wrens, nuthatches There are exceptions. Robins both brood in open cup nests and the males are only slightly more vibrant in color tone than females. Phalaropes... the males brood in open cup reed platform and the females are the more colorful of the two. Again, usually the color tone and quality is more vibrant. Ducks we are all familiar with, the hen blends into the nest, the male guards The quality of purple in the purple finch depends on the diet. It is not royal purple but rather old raspberry.
Svmer is icumen in Lhude sing cuccu!
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booger fever |
Re: Some bird photos | ||
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Posts: 3922 (03/04/08 09:42 AM) Alpha Geek |
Last night as I drove to the farm a heron flew overhead. Soon after that I saw a hawk perched on a teleophone line where I recently saw it before. All I see at
work now are TVs, geese, and an occasional heron. (The usual TV dinner is a groundhog.) I'm waiting for the osprey to return to its nest by the highway.
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BoogaWooga |
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Posts: 950 (03/04/08 01:47 PM) |
What are TVs?
http://marylandcountrygarden.typepad.com
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Bellamy |
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Posts: 4662 (03/04/08 01:55 PM) |
Just got through this thread!!!!!!!!!! Great pix!!! I love birds.
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Poopoe |
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Posts: 70 (03/04/08 02:01 PM) |
TV = turkey vulture
Svmer is icumen in Lhude sing cuccu!
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ideering |
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Posts: 3316 (03/04/08 05:19 PM) |
I've been wanting all day to scroll through here, leisurely-like.
LOVE IT. We should have a bird forum. 
Y'all should've seen me Sunday afternoon sitting out in the yard squeezing my Audubon Red-Winged Blackbird stuffed bird with recorded birdsong. I kept making him sing in hopes of attracting other RWBBs to the yard, all the while wondering how many middleaged wimmen sit in the yard playing with a stuffed animal. 
Oh how quickly a train of thought becomes a train of wreck on the Internet...
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ideering |
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Posts: 3317 (03/04/08 05:22 PM) |
baler twine being used to hang up the suet stationsI use the twine to hang my tube feeders and one of the tray feeders -- BUT I keep doing double takes thinking I see a cardinal.
Oh how quickly a train of thought becomes a train of wreck on the Internet...
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julia in usa |
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Posts: 6 (03/05/08 08:47 AM) |
Ideering that's funny! I was just thinking the other day that I keep hearing RWBBs trilling but haven't seen one yet.
http://marylandcountrygarden.typepad.com
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BoogaWooga |
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Posts: 951 (03/05/08 08:50 AM) |
Ooops! The above post was by Boogawooga in another incarnation
.
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ideering |
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Posts: 3319 (03/05/08 10:29 AM) |
I've had lots of RWBBs this year already!!
I can't tell if the plain blackbirds have the same song, but they have been traveling in the same flocks. So I now get excited even to see plain ol' blackbirds. 
Oh how quickly a train of thought becomes a train of wreck on the Internet...
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Walks with Boogers |
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Posts: 3575 (03/05/08 10:56 AM) |
(Oops, double drunken post.) |
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Walks with Boogers |
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Posts: 3576 (03/05/08 10:57 AM) |
These are fabulous! Where's EE with some of her great bird pics? I can't stalk her if she isn't here. (EEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEE, I'm baaaaaaack!)
EE sent me her humingbird on a feeder, and BW your titmouse has similar colors and I think they might look fab together -- are you making prints? |
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BoogaWooga |
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Posts: 952 (03/05/08 03:45 PM) |
Ideering, what bird are you calling a "regular blackbird"? I don't think we have such around here. We have black birds (crows, starlings, RWBB,
grackles) but no "blackbirds".
WwBoogers: I'm not sure what you're asking me?
http://marylandcountrygarden.typepad.com
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