More on crazy towhees. Listen to this one from Boulder County earlier this year:
https://www.xeno-canto.org/534770 It's like it's two totally different birds! Long recording, but you need to hear the whole thing to get a full sense of what's going on. Here's one from Alamosa County that can't decide whether it's not an eastern towhee: https://www.xeno-canto.org/320564 And on and on and on it goes with this species. Ted Floyd Lafayette, Boulder County On Thursday, June 18, 2020 at 6:32:42 AM UTC-6, Eric DeFonso wrote: > > I know I'm a bit late to the game - I've been out in the wilds of Colorado > doing socially-distanced bird surveys for the Bird Conservancy once again > this year. This is a great recording that Ted has shared, and I wanted to > amplify the point he makes in sharing it by sharing a similarly perplexing > recording I made 6 years ago while on another one of these field seasons > that I'm doing. > > This is a Spotted Towhee recording I made in Yellowjacket Canyon way down > southwest near the Utah border in Montezuma County back on May 31, 2014, > while searching for resident Lucy's Warblers. When I first heard it, like > Ted in his situation I wasn't sure what I was going to find since it was > unlike anything I'd been expecting to hear. But on closer approach I was > able to confirm the ID visually and easily, as the bird was perched quite > noticeably atop a shrub. My recording is only 30 seconds, but the bird > continued to sing this variant for pretty much the entire duration of my > visit to the area, which was well over 90 minutes. > > https://www.xeno-canto.org/205868 > > ------- > Eric DeFonso > near Lyons, Boulder County, CO > > > On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 8:59 PM Ted Floyd <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Alrighty, y'all, what everybody's been wondering about for the past 48 >> hours . . . >> >> So . . . Every guess here at COBirds was wrong, although two late >> entrants got the bird in the right family. Over at Facebook, all the >> guesses were likewise wrong, with nobody even getting the mystery songster >> to the right family. I am aware of guesses from the following avian >> families: >> >> Scolopacidae (sandpipers) >> >> Tyrannidae (flycatchers) >> Corvidae (crows, jays) >> >> Turdidae (thrushes, robins) >> Mimidae (catbirds, thrashers, mockingbirds) >> >> Fringillidae (finches) >> Icteridae (blackbirds) >> Passerellidae (sparrows) >> Parulidae (warblers) >> >> >> So who got it in the right family? Donald Jones and Maureen Blackford. >> Good job! However, the bird wasn’t a song sparrow. >> >> >> >> Folks wrote to me offline, too, and one of them got it all the way to >> species. Our winner is . . . Christian Nunes, who correctly recognized this >> as the song of the endlessly protean >> >> *spotted towhee.*While I have you, here’s how the saga unfolded on my >> end. When I first heard the song, at some distance, I wondered if the bird >> was going to be a blue jay. We have this whack-job blue jay at Waneka who >> frequently imitates Swainson hawks, ospreys, I believe, and maybe even >> red-winged blackbirds. So, for those of who thought it was a blue jay: Same >> here. But, then, as I got closer, I started to semi-seriously consider the >> possibility that this was going to be Colorado’s second rufous-collared >> sparrow—and the third for the east flank of the Rockies in the USA. So I >> was in the right family—of course with that intangible yet critical >> advantage of actually being in the field with the bird. Finally, as I >> neared the bird, which I eventually saw up close and personal, something >> clicked, and I was pretty sure it was going to be a spotted towhee. Again, >> the imponderable essence of being there. >> >> >> Thanks to all of you for playing along, and congrats to Christian. Next >> time I see you in person, I owe you a bottle of kombucha and a sack of >> orange slices. >> >> Ted Floyd >> >> Lafayette, Boulder County >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Colorado Birds" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/a4e384e4-5374-4d15-b835-f17d0788ed25o%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/a4e384e4-5374-4d15-b835-f17d0788ed25o%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/cabef02a-4745-4612-afe6-3a2e17f5f769o%40googlegroups.com.
