Hey, all. This is totally conjectural. And it's based on a small sample size. But, hey, ya gotta start somewhere.
So...a bit more than a month ago, I posted a link to a "Gambel's" White-crowned Sparrow (subspecies *gambelii*) flight call I'd uploaded to eBird/Macaulay, and one person flat-out questioned the ID. That's cool. Always good to maintain a healthy skepticism. However, the bird in question was perched right in front of me, in broad daylight. And now I have another such recording, definitely of a different bird (different age), and it's not dissimilar from the first. Both have this little squiggle at the end. And the only Xeno-Canto upload of *gambelii* flight calls (other than my own recordings), by Tayler Brooks, also shows the squiggle. Again, a pretty small sample. And flight calls are variable. So I'm not wedded to this. But I thought I'd put it out there. Here are my two Macaulay uploads: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/75818451 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/70518311 And here is the Tayler Brooks recording: http://www.xeno-canto.org/41863 It might well be nothing at all. But, given that Bill Evans has mentioned that there's an effort under way to expand the library of flight calls for *Flight Calls of Migratory Birds* (hooray!), I guess I've been thinking a bit more about taxa like *gambelii* that understandably aren't included in the first/Eastern edition of Flight Calls. Ted Floyd Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado, USA -- NFC-L List Info: Welcome and Basics � http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME Rules and Information � http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES Subscribe, Configuration and Leave � http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm Archives: The Mail Archive � http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html Surfbirds � http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L Birding.ABA.Org � http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NFC Please submit your observations to eBird! ��http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
