Suan's post about the mystery triller at Lindsay Parsons (which I guess to be a Yellow-rumped Warbler) prompts me to relate an experience from this morning along the Signal Mountain "road" through Yellow Barn Forest.
I heard several trilling DARK-EYED JUNCOS along this road, and was keeping track of their wide variation (one was distinctly 3-parted with pauses between short trilled phrases). I came to one unseen bird with a very fast, short, and "dry" trill, which made me pause. On a long shot, I played the song of a Worm-eating Warbler -- several times with no response at all. The bird continued to sing from a nearby treetop. Then, just to be sure, I cued up Dark-eyed Junco on my iPhone app and played the first several variations -- the song continued from the same spot with no perceivable response. Then I noticed that the songs I was playing were labeled "Oregon Junco" -- the westernmost form of Dark-eyed Junco. They sounded like perfectly good junco songs to me. The next song up was "Slate-colored Junco" and within a half second of the song beginning, a male JUNCO dove straight down out of the treetop like a bullet and hopped around at me feet. So, even though I was confused but he trilling songs, this bird certainly was not confused about what he was! I was also hearing quite a few BLACKBURNIAN WARBLERS, mostly giving their alternate song -- a very high-pitched short "tee-tew-tee-tew-tee-tew." One song seemed a bit longer and slower and seemed very much like a Black-and-white Warbler song (I find Black-and-white to be a surprisingly rare breeder in the Ithaca area, so wanted to be sure). So, I played Black-and-white Warbler song to this bird (which to me matched the song I was hearing almost exactly), and immediately a bird dove at me and sat fairly low in a tree over my head -- only it was a male Blackburnian Warbler! So Why would a Blackburnian Warbler respond so strongly to a Black-and-White Warbler song, and a Junco completely ignore a nearly identical song from a different race of its own species? After 50 years of birding, I still learn new things every time I go out! KEN byw, Yellow Barn was fairly quiet overall, but I did have a nice male HOODED WARBLER on Tehan Rd. on the way up, and a singing MOURNING WARBLER along Yellow Barn Road when I was driving back around. Ken Rosenberg Conservation Science Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2412 607-342-4594 (cell) k...@cornell.edu<mailto:k...@cornell.edu> -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
