The Backyard Birdsong Guide Eastern and Central North America: A Guide to Listening
192
The Backyard Birdsong Guide Eastern and Central North America: A Guide to Listening
192eBookSecond Edition (Second Edition)
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Overview
Backyard Birdsongs is an interactive handbook of birds and their songs for beginning bird-watchers. With a touch-button electronic module housing common vocalizations of 75 species from across Eastern and Central North America, this volume offers a truly sensory way to identify and get to know local birds. Crisply detailed and scientifically accurate illustrations accompany each entry, and up-to-date range maps provide clear geographical reference points. Complete with an introduction to birdsongs that will inspire readers to look out their kitchen windows and venture out in the field, this unique book provides an exciting entryway into the subtle art of birding.
This second edition includes a much-requested new Sound Track Index (to help make watching and listening to birds easier), and a download of the award-winning MERLIN™ Bird ID App available FREE on iTunes and Android stores (no code necessary).
35% of the net proceeds from the sale of Backyard Birdsongs supports projects at the Cornell Lab, such as children’s educational and community programs.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781943645169 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Cornell Lab Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 04/12/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 206 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Donald's work on bird song is legendary. In 2003 the American Ornithologists' Union called him the "reigning authority on the biology of avian vocal behavior." Kroodsma received his Ph.D. at Oregon State University and has traveled all over North and South America researching bird song. He is a Visiting Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, American Ornithologists' Union, and the Animal Behavior Society and has published hundreds of academic and popular articles. He lives in Hatfield, MA.
Larry McQueen painted the popular Project FeederWatch eastern and western Common Feeder Birds posters. Bird images from those posters and from other sources, including three original watercolor paintings done for BirdSource's Warbler Watch site, are used throughout both the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's web site and the BirdSource web site. Larry's work is widely known and respected, having appeared widely in calendars, catalogs, and magazines, including the Lab's own Living Bird. He has illustrated for many books, such as The Audubon Master Guide to Birding, and you'll find his images in a number of field guides.
Originally from Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, Larry earned degrees from Idaho State University and the University of Oregon. After a career in fish and game management and then as a graphic designer, he started painting full-time in 1977. He now lives in Eugene, OR.
Jon Janosik was born in Connecticut in 1941. Living with my grandparents on their Trumbull farm in my formative years, he became enchanted with wild birds, nature and Biology. He became acquainted with Roger Tory Peterson and gained many early skills in the field while attending Peterson's local bird walks.
Jon's work has been featured in such books as Field Guide to North American Birds (National Geographic Society), Birds of the Ligonier Valley (Carnegie Museum) ,The Audubon Society Master Guide to Birding, An Audubon Handbook, Western/Eastern Birds, and Book of North American Birds (Readers Digest Books). Jon's works have been exhibited in numerous museums, and galleries including: Kobe Museum, Sanda Japan; The Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum-Wausau WI; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh PA; Moji Art Galley, Kitakyushu Japan; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (Birds in Art), Kirritappu Wetland Center, Hokkaido, Japan and the British Museum, London England.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
SECTION 1: THE NON–PAS SERINE GROUP
As you begin to get to know the seventy-five birds in this book, it's helpful to understand how they are organized. Generally, this guide and most others are organized in taxonomic order, which reflects the order in which the species evolved. Ornithologists recognize two main groups of birds — the "nonpasserines" and the "passerines"; we treat the nonpasserine birds first because they are the modern descendents of the first birds to split off the evolutionary tree.
HERE'S A LITTLE BACKGROUND: THE FIRST BIRDS EMERGED from the reptile lineage about a hundred fifty million years ago, and although many of those ancient avian beginnings became dead ends, one group survived to become today's birds, a group that now seems most likely to have had its roots in the dinosaurs.
Indeed, recently discovered fossils of dinosaurs with feather coverings help confirm that birds are modern dinosaurs with feathers.
But we classify modern birds into the class Aves, distinguishing them from the dinosaurs' class Reptilia and recognizing about ten thousand bird species worldwide in about thirty major groups. Some of the first birds to split from the lineage leading to modern birds were ostriches, emus, and their relatives, none of which occur in North America. The next two groups to have split off are believed to be the waterfowl (ducks and geese) and the gallinaceous birds (quail and other chicken-like birds), so they are listed first in this book.
Of the seventy-five birds treated in this book, the last fifty-nine belong to the wildly successful and more recently evolved group of birds called "passerines" (see pages 56–57 for an overview). Passerines are often called "the perching birds," though other birds also perch, of course; ornithologists recognize them as a group because of the unique structure of their toes and leg bones. The first sixteen species in this book belong to a set of other groups typically referred to collectively as "non-passerines."
Among the non-passerine groups represented in this first section of the book are the ducks and geese, quail, loons, grebes, hawks, rails, shorebirds, doves, owls, nightjars, kingfishers, and woodpeckers — representatives from twelve of the non-passerine groups that occur in the world.
Vocalizations of these non-passerines include some of the best-known and favorite sounds in our avian soundscape. What child doesn't know how to quack like a duck or hoot like an owl, and the maniacal laughter of the loon is a well-known symbol of the northern wilderness.
Among the sixteen species represented here, it is believed that the sounds that they use are inherited from their parents, with the instructions on how to use the appropriate sounds somehow encoded in the genetic material.
The vocalizations of these non-passerine examples illustrate well the ways in which sounds are important in the daily lives of these diverse birds. Come listen in a whole new way to the quacking of ducks, to how a woodcock sings with its wings, how a nightjar's song jars the night, how woodpeckers "sing" by ramming their bills into trees.
DUCKS AND GEESE (ANATIDAE)
CANADA GOOSE
(Branta canadensis)
* Summer
* Year-round
* Winter
HABITAT: Wetlands, from the featureless tundra, prairie potholes, lake-shores, beaver ponds, and coastal marshes to protected urban ponds
DESCRIPTION: Most common and familiar of all geese, with black head and long black neck, white chin strap from ear to ear, and dusky breast; western birds tend to be darker, northern breeders smaller
What better sound to mark the changing of the seasons than the honking of geese high overhead; we all mark the moment by maneuvering to get a glimpse of the undulating, V-shaped ribbon of geese heading north in spring or south in the fall.
Listen carefully to that flock overhead, or better yet, get much closer to some breeding or overwintering geese in a marsh or pond to hear the distinctly lower honk of the male and the higher hrink of the female. Up close, you also hear how each call actually begins with a harsh, lower, atonal note, followed by the more musical ending: agh-honk, agh-hrink.
What fun to listen to these geese at close range. In spring, when a pair establishes its breeding territory and interacts with neighboring pairs, they perform much coordinated posturing and duetting, the male and female often alternating their calls so rapidly and precisely that it sounds like one bird: agh-honk agh-hrink agh-honk agh-hrink. When calling alone, the male sometimes beautifully draws out that lower note, to aaghh-honk. And in wintering flocks it is captivating to hear the murmur of the crowd, and to hear how parents and their offspring talk to one another, defending the family from others as they stay together.
Geese from certain populations are especially small; because of their slight bodies, reduced lung capacity, and shorter necks, the deep, resonant honking is more of a yipping or cackling. These smaller geese, closely related to the Canada Goose but now actually recognized as a separate species, the Cackling Goose, breed from northern Canada to Alaska, wintering from Texas to the Pacific.
MALLARD
(Anas platyrhynchos)
* Summer
* Year-round
* Winter
HABITAT: Various wetlands, including wooded swamps, marshes, and ponds; also common in farmlands and urban parks
DESCRIPTION: Large "dabbling duck" (tips its bottom up to feed underwater); male with iridescent-green head, rusty chest, gray body, and black tail curl, and female mottled brown; both sexes have blue wing patch with white borders
Quack! One word says it all. Who doesn't recognize the quack of a Mallard? Yet intriguingly, the female's voice is the one by which we know this most widespread North American duck. Only she quacks — the males do not. Sometimes she gives a simple, persistent series of monotone quacks, as when she's selecting a nest site during courtship. More commonly, we hear a striking "decrescendo call," two to ten quacks with an accent on the first or second and then trailing off, successive notes becoming softer and shorter: qua QUACK QUACK quack qua. ... It's contagious, too: one female calling in a flock and others responding, each seemingly reaffirming contact with her mate.
The male's calls are seldom heard by the casual birder, as they're far softer: a reedy, rasping rab or a double rabrab, given in a variety of circumstances, such as when courting or greeting a female, or when seemingly alarmed.
Settle in next to a flock of Mallards and listen to the nuances of these basic calls. Or listen to the tender, affectionate clucking sounds of a mother with her ducklings and you'll come to know a whole new Mallard.
But the Mallard is only one of many ducks worthy of your ear! The common sound of the Wood Duck, that loud, squealing, rising oo-eek, is also given by the female, not the male, and her spring courtship sounds are wonderfully complex. Males of some species do have a striking "song," such as a courting Ruddy Duck.
Explore these other species and you'll start to get a sense of the shared characteristics of the duck family.
NEW WORLD QUAIL (ODONTOPHORIDAE)
NORTHERN BOBWHITE
(Colinus virginianus)
* Year-round
HABITAT: Various habitats, including agricultural fields and grasslands, brushy fields, and open pine and mixed woodlands
DESCRIPTION: Familiar little quail of the East; small, round head with slight crest, round reddish-and-brown body with short tail; throat and eyebrow white on males, buff-colored on females
A thousand times a day from a bush or fence post the bachelor male might call his name, oh BOB WHITE!, beginning soft and low with the oh, pausing a quarter second, rising to the louder BOB, then pausing half a second before sliding sharply up the scale with his ringing WHITE! Here in one and a half seconds is the unmistakable announcement that he seeks a mate.
Beyond this most familiar sound, the bobwhite has a rich repertoire of vocalizations. On a spring morning the bachelors give the common oh BOB WHITE!, but pairs use a different call, one that helps reunite birds who are separated. The pair's call takes different forms: Perhaps it'll be a soft, whistled hoy, or a louder hoypoo, or a more intense hoyee (the second syllable higher than the first but with no pause between). Birds in coveys (i.e., flocks) during the non-breeding season use this call regularly as well.
An adult with a brood will call softly, tu-tu-tutu, while motioning with its bill toward food for the young. Their alarm calls are different if the predator is on the ground (a softtireee initially) or flying (errrk); how the bobwhite uses these various calls no doubt conveys information of great significance to other members of its flock.
Close relatives of the Bobwhite make for wonderful listening, too, as males in all these groups spare no effort to impress females. Ring-necked Pheasants crow in open country, Ruffed Grouse drum and Wild Turkeys gobble in forests, and sage-grouse and prairie-chickens strut in their display arenas on the Great Plains.
LOONS (GAVIIDAE)
COMMON LOON
(Gavia immer)
* Summer
* Winter
HABITAT: Clear, northern lakes surrounded by boreal forest and with rocky shores, numerous bays, and islands; also lakes of subarctic tundra
DESCRIPTION: Stunningly elegant, with black head, bill, and neck with band of vertical white stripes; back feathers show large black-and-white rectangular patches while floating on water
This spectacular creature, the spirit of the northern wilderness, is an honorary backyard species. Camp and canoe where spruce and fir point skyward and graceful white birches line rocky shores to hear its wild songs and calls.
Upon arriving just after the ice has melted, the male "yodels." He crouches low in the water with neck outstretched, the lower bill just above the surface, and swings his head from side to side. His voice starts low and rises for almost a second; the next phrase then rises and falls; the third rising and staying high, the second and third phrases repeated one or more times. It's his territorial proclamation, carrying well over a mile under calm conditions!
My favorite sound is the "wail," sounding much like a wolf howl (oo-oo-oo). It's one to two seconds of pure, mournful tones, sometimes held steady in pitch, sometimes breaking to a higher pitch and then down again, seemingly used to keep mates in contact with each other or to bring them back together. Interestingly, one-week-old young already "wail."
And then there's the "tremolo," sounding like maniacal laughter, a call used in a variety of circumstances. Canoe too close to the nest and the adults tremolo, or listen to the pair "duet tremolo," perhaps as a territorial statement. These birds also "hoot," using brief, soft, low notes to communicate with others in a flock.
For an unforgettable experience, listen in the two to three hours before midnight for the grand chorus, when all loons within earshot pull out all stops, using every sound in their vocal arsenal and in all combinations.
GREBES (PODICIPEDIDAE)
PIED-BILLED GREBE
(Podilymbus podiceps)
* Summer
* Year-round
* Winter
HABITAT: Breeds in freshwater marshes, ponds, lakes, and sluggish rivers across North America; may winter in brackish estuaries
DESCRIPTION: Small, brownish diving bird with chicken-like bill and short, thick neck; during breeding season, it has black throat and "pied" bill (white with vertical black stripe)
How thrilling to hear the full song of a male Pied-billed Grebe and to watch him in the act. He partially submerges his breast and neck, distends his throat and stretches his neck, and lets fly with about a dozen cuckoo-like kuk notes over two seconds, then, more slowly, about twenty kaows over seven seconds, ending with a longer, drawn-out, donkey-bray kaooo with several gulping gow notes, and perhaps more braying and gulping.
Go ahead, practice it, and you'll realize what a remarkable sound it is: Twelve kuks over two seconds, twenty kaows over seven seconds, ending with at least two series of kaooo-gow-gow-gow-gow-gow! Vary the song as the male does, too, sometimes singing only the kuk notes, sometimes only the kaow notes. Or sing like the female does, not as loud as the male and omitting the brays and gulps. For best effect, find a partner and duet this song together, just as the grebes do!
Listen as two grebes greet each other, both of them calling a rapid-fire ek-ek-ek-ek — about twenty-four notes over three seconds. Like other grebes, these birds are so expressive in their physical posturing to each other, often using this greeting call in the process. Upon meeting, a paired male and female may pirouette about each other, rising upright in the water, stretching the neck and distending the black throat, while acknowledging each other with the ek-ek- ek call. Sometimes the same pair will come together in hunched posture, swim side by side, bills low, calling ek-ek-ek-ek; then he extends his neck upward and raises his head ("growing") while she retracts her neck, keeping the head low and tail up ("shrinking") in a complex and beautiful greeting ritual.
HAWKS AND EAGLES (ACCIPITRIDAE)
RED-TAILED HAWK
(Buteo jamaicensis)
* Summer
* Year-round
HABITAT: Open country with some trees or high perches, including areas such as agricultural fields, plains, urban parklands, and scrub desert
DESCRIPTION: Robust and broad-winged, typically with reddish tail above and white chest with dark belly band; confusing variation in some populations, with lighter-colored birds even having white tails
These hawks may be difficult to identify because of their varied plumages, but they're easy to pick out by that feeling of raw power once they speak: a two- to three-second-long shrill and hoarse asthmatic squeal, slurred downward with several subtle but abrupt shifts in pitch: kee-eeee-arrr. So irresistible is the energy in this hair-raising scream that Hollywood has adopted it as the symbol of power in the wilderness. No matter what the setting, no matter what large hawk-like bird has just appeared on screen, the red-tail's kee-eeee-arrr is assigned to the scene.
In spring, watch and listen as male and female court. They circle high over their territory, the male ascending above her, and after a series of dives and ascents he slowly approaches her from above, briefly touching or grasping her with his talons, while both male and female scream kee-eeee-arrr. During these aerial antics, another sound is often repeated rapidly, sounding much like chwirk, given at the rate of about one per second.
In territorial squabbles with neighbors, red-tails dive steeply from high over their own territory and then check their descent, only to shoot upward again, repeatedly screaming kee-eeee-arrr. With each kee-eeee-arrr, the duration varies, as does the pitch; the quality varies, too, with some sounding rather shrill and pure but others sounding more like a hissy steamboat whistle. Even youngsters in the nest utter a softer version of this adult kee-eeee-arrr, suggesting that this scream is inborn, not learned from adults.
RAILS, GALLINULES, AND COOTS (RALLIDAE)
SORA
(Porzana carolina)
* Summer
* Year-round
* Winter
HABITAT: Breeds in freshwater marshes and wetlands, especially those with cattails, sedges, bulrushes, and bur reeds
DESCRIPTION: Plump rail with gray chest, rich brown back, greenish legs, and long toes; the stubby yellow bill contrasts sharply with black face mask and throat; flicks short tail nervously He is so secretive, so elusive, yet how boldly the Sora proclaims himself upon first arriving on his breeding territory. With rising inflection, the male calls repeatedly, plaintively, sor-AH ... sor-AH, as if asking a mate to join him, calling all day and sometimes all night long until he is successful.
Once birds pair, another sound becomes more common, the distinctive horse whinny, whee-hehehehehehehehe-he-he-he-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee. ... It's three to four seconds of the finest sound that ever emerges from a marsh: Consisting of sweet, clear tones, the whinny begins with a single, longish note, followed typically by a rising and falling half-second blur of a dozen or so brief notes, and then gradually drops in pitch, successive notes also becoming longer. Should you be so lucky to spot the bird calling, you'd see that he delivers this call with his bill pointing down, as if talking to the water. The female then often calls in response, overlapping him, but with a shorter, more variable, and higher-frequency whinny.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Eastern and Central North America"
by .
Copyright © 2008 becker&mayer! LLC.
Excerpted by permission of The Cornell Lab Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
CONTENTSNew Inside Cover SOUND TRACK INDEX
INTRODUCTION: THE WORLD OF BIRDSONG
Why Birds Sing 10
Where Each Bird Gets His Song 12
Songs and Calls 14
The Practice of Deep Listening 15
Where to Begin 21
How to Use the Audio Player 22
SECTION 1: THE NON-PASSERINE GROUP
Ducks and Geese (Anatidae) 26 Canada Goose
Ducks and Geese (Anatidae) 28 Mallard
New World Quail (Odontophoridae) 30 Northern Bobwhite
Loons (Gaviidae) 32 Common Loon
Grebes (Podicipedidae) 34 Pied-billed Grebe
Hawks and Eagles (Accipitridae) 36 Red-tailed Hawk
Rails, Gallinules, and Coots (Rallidae) 38 Sora
Plovers (Charadriidae) 40 Killdeer
Sandpipers and Phalaropes (Scolopacidae) 42 American Woodcock
Pigeons and Doves (Columbidae) 44 Mourning Dove
Owls (Strigidae) 46 Great Horned Owl
Owls (Strigidae) 48 Barred Owl
Goatsuckers (Caprimulgidae) 50 Whip-poor-will
Kingfishers (Alcedinidae) 52 Belted Kingfisher
Woodpeckers (Picidae) 54 Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers
Woodpeckers (Picidae) 56 Northern Flicker
SECTION 2: THE PASSERINE GROUP
Tyrant Flycatchers (Tyrannidae) 60 Eastern Wood-Pewee
Tyrant Flycatchers (Tyrannidae) 62 Willow Flycatcher
Tyrant Flycatchers (Tyrannidae) 64 Eastern Phoebe
Tyrant Flycatchers (Tyrannidae) 66 Great Crested Flycatcher
Tyrant Flycatchers (Tyrannidae) 68 Eastern Kingbird
Vireos (Vireonidae) 70 White-eyed Vireo
Vireos (Vireonidae) 72 Warbling Vireo
Vireos (Vireonidae) 74 Red-eyed Vireo
Jays and Crows (Corvidae) 76 Blue Jay
Jays and Crows (Corvidae) 78 American Crow
Swallows (Hirundinidae) 80 Purple Martin
Chickadees and Titmice (Paridae) 82 Black-capped Chickadee
Chickadees and Titmice (Paridae)84 Carolina Chickadee
Chickadees and Titmice (Paridae)86 Tufted Titmouse
Nuthatches (Sittidae) 88 White-breasted Nuthatch
Wrens (Troglodytidae) 90 Carolina Wren
Wrens (Troglodytidae) 92 House Wren
Wrens (Troglodytidae) 94 Winter Wren
Wrens (Troglodytidae) 96 Marsh Wren
Thrushes (Turdidae) 98 American Robin
Thrushes (Turdidae) 100 Eastern Bluebird
Thrushes (Turdidae) 102 Hermit Thrush
Thrushes (Turdidae) 104 Wood Thrush
Thrushes (Turdidae) 106 Veery
Mockingbirds and Thrashers (Mimidae) 108 Gray Catbird
Mockingbirds and Thrashers (Mimidae)110 Northern Mockingbird
Mockingbirds and Thrashers (Mimidae)112 Brown Thrasher
Starlings (Sturnidae) 114 European Starling
Waxwings (Bombycillidae) 116 Cedar Waxwing
Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) 118 Blue-winged Warbler
Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) 120 Northern Parula
Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) 122 Yellow Warbler
Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) 124 Chestnut-sided Warbler
Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) 126 Black-throated Green Warbler
Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) 128 Prairie Warbler
Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) 130 Black-and-white Warbler
Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) 132 American Redstart
Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) 134 Ovenbird
Wood-Warblers (Parulidae) 136 Common Yellowthroat
Tanagers (Thraupidae) 138 Scarlet Tanager
Sparrows (Emberizidae) 140 Eastern Towhee
Sparrows (Emberizidae) 142 Chipping Sparrow
Sparrows (Emberizidae) 144 Field Sparrow
Sparrows (Emberizidae) 146 Savannah Sparrow
Sparrows (Emberizidae) 148 Song Sparrow
Sparrows (Emberizidae) 150 White-throated Sparrow
Sparrows (Emberizidae) 152 Dark-eyed Junco
Cardinals, Grosbeaks, and Buntings (Cardinalidae) 154 Northern Cardinal
Cardinals, Grosbeaks, and Buntings (Cardinalidae)156 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Cardinals, Grosbeaks, and Buntings (Cardinalidae)158 Indigo Bunting
Blackbirds (Icteridae) 160 Bobolink
Blackbirds (Icteridae) 162 Red-winged Blackbird
Blackbirds (Icteridae) 164 Eastern Meadowlark
Blackbirds (Icteridae) 166 Common Grackle
Blackbirds (Icteridae) 168 Brown-headed Cowbird
Blackbirds (Icteridae) 170 Baltimore Oriole
Finches (Fringillidae) 172 House Finch
Finches (Fringillidae) 174 American Goldfinch
Old World Sparrows (Passeridae) 176 House Sparrow
More Fun with Birdsong 178
Additional Listening and Reading Sources 180
References 181
Illustration Credits 182
Recording Credits 182
About the Cornell Lab of Ornithology 183
About the Artists 184
About the Author 185
Index 186
Acknowledgments 192