Wow Chris, you have a good ear! I wouldn’t have been able to call that a species in the bunting complex simply based on the spectrogram, but I agree on listening that is likely what it is. Based on the apparent spectrographic frequency envelope of the call, it would be a lowish bunting type that qualifies for Blue Grosbeak consideration. But this is another case like Bicknell’s versus Gray-cheeked in that we (as far as I know) don’t know the potential overlap of low INBUs and high BLGRs. In a quick look at a hundred or so bunting types I’ve recorded in New York and northern Ohio this spring, most are double-banded (presumed syrinx action) and the higher bands are well above 7 kHz while the lower band ranges down into the 5.5 kHz range. But there are a few cases in these data when loud calls show only one band. In one from central NY a few nights ago, the whole single-banded call is contained within the 5.6-6.6 kHz envelop.
Your call is a low one and your BLGR speculation is warranted. However, at the rate progress in flight call IDs is going, and like your martin siting from a decade or so ago, I suspect you won’t find an answer in your present incarnation. Bill E From: Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 8:12 PM To: NFC-L Subject: [nfc-l] Potentially Interesting NFC for Upstate NY I encountered the following NFC while going through data (manual browsing - low call count nights...not bad) from the night of 12-13 May. This bird called once somewhat distant from my listening station in Etna, NY, at approximately 01:52AM. This is very intriguing to me, because it is noticeably lower in frequency than Indigo Bunting and is slightly descending in frequency over the duration of the call. This is suggestive of Blue Grosbeak, but I am curious to know what others think. This is the first time I have encountered such a low frequency "Indigo Bunting"... As labeled, one file is amplified and filtered, while the other is the original unfiltered clip. Comments? Thoughts? Thanks! Sincerely, Chris T-H -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes TARU Product Line Manager and Field Applications Engineer Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 W: 607-254-2418 M: 607-351-5740 F: 607-254-1132 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp -- NFC-L List Info: Welcome and Basics Rules and Information Subscribe, Configuration and Leave Archives: The Mail Archive Surfbirds BirdingOnThe.Net Please submit your observations to eBird! -- -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
