It is interesting to note that Dave's experience appears to differ
from the BNA (Birds of North America) description of Yellow-throated
Warbler's song. This is not the first time that I have found the BNA
description of sounds to differ from field observations. Have others
noticed a variety of songs from the Fall Creek bird?
From BNA:
Vocal Array
Most males have only 1 song (Fig. 3), a series of clear, slurred notes
dropping slightly in pitch. It has been rendered as tee-ew, tew, tew,
tew, tew,tew, wi (last note rising; Peterson 1980) or asching, ching,
ching, chicker, cher, wee (Chapman 1917). Song is loud and has some of
the wild, ringing quality of that of Louisiana Waterthrush (Parkesia
motacilla). Females have not been reported to sing.
Note also that the BNA description goes onto say that there are a few
records of a "second song" ("several notes on the same pitch mixed
with slurred notes and four descending notes followed by a rising
note").
I'll have to get down there today and listen!
Bob McGuire
On May 16, 2012, at 10:41 PM, Dave Nutter wrote:
> I listened to the YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER for awhile this morning
> singing from the Sycamore grove along Pier Road, and I saw it as
> well to confirm. It sounded a bit different than yesterday. I don't
> know if that was due to the environment or proximity or the bird's
> enthusiasm at different times of day or something about my own
> mental state. Anyway it sounded more like:
>
> tu tu tu TEE-TU TEE-TU TEE-TU TEE-TU TEE-Tu tyu
>
> The sound is not the rich slurred notes of a Baltimore Oriole, but
> instead higher and thinner and thus more obviously a warbler. It
> varied between 4 and 7 of the TEE-TU pairs of notes. The quieter
> introductory and final notes were sometimes hard to hear among the
> many other singers in the area, but the TEE-TU notes cut through
> loud & clear. The ending was also a bit variable, but I never heard
> it give a rising final note like the birds I've heard in New Jersey.
>
> --Dave Nutter
>
> On May 15, 2012, at 10:53 PM, Dave Nutter <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> This afternoon (15 May) I went to Pier Road beside Newman Golf
>> Course and also across Fall Creek in Renwick Wildwood. Among other
>> things, I hoped to refind the YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER. I believe I
>> eventually heard it, but I was not able to see it, in or near a
>> large Sycamore in Renwick between the two paths well north of the
>> concrete arch. While trying to find the bird I worked on memorizing
>> the song. I wasn't perfect in that department either, but I notated
>> it:
>>
>> tup tup tup TEE-DOE TEE-DOE TEE-DOE TEE-DOE TEE-DOE du du
>>
>> I actually forgot to count how many of the louder TEE-DOE pairs of
>> notes there were, but the last one or two of those pairs was
>> slightly lower in pitch than the initial few, and they seemed
>> similar to some recordings I've heard of Yellow-throated Warbler,
>> but I haven't heard recordings with any such introductory notes nor
>> with such a bland tag at the end. I wonder if this description
>> matches what other observers have heard from the Yellow-throated
>> Warbler which has been in this area during the past week, and also
>> whether either this description or what you heard from this
>> individual is similar to songs from this species others have heard
>> elsewhere Thanks.
>>
>> Other things I found included a female COMMON MERGANSER entering a
>> hole in a dead tree, and a pied EUROPEAN STARLING, which I've seen
>> before, on the Stewart Park lawn north of the suspension bridge. It
>> is mostly normal but with several small white splotches scattered
>> over its body and a large white patch on its upper right breast.
>>
>> --Dave Nutter
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