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Mystery song for the X-mas bird count

posted by Jerry Liguori at
on Thursday, December 15, 2011 


Well, if I don't hear or see one of these on the X-mas bird count saturday, I can at least count it since its thursday today.

If anyone wants to take a stab at the answer, feel free

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15 Comments:
Blogger Bryce said...

Black-headed Grosbeak?

December 16, 2011 at 12:31 AM  
Blogger Tim Avery said...

One of my favorites. I won't lay out the answer so others can take a guess, but I will give a clue--it's a member of the family Fringillidae and is fitting that it was singing from a conifer.

December 16, 2011 at 8:26 AM  
Blogger Jeff Bilsky said...

I woke up at 3am last night, checked my email, saw and listened to this post and then proceeded to have a dream about these birds. Looking forward to a great weekend of Christmas Bird Counts.

December 16, 2011 at 8:32 AM  
Anonymous Mark Stackhouse said...

Good luck on your count. I hope you get one on the day - I'm sure we won't here!

December 16, 2011 at 8:46 AM  
Blogger Tim Avery said...

@Mark: Yeah yeah, keep rubbing it in--I would take the birds of San Blas over the birds of Norhtern Utah in mid December any day.

December 16, 2011 at 8:52 AM  
Blogger Jerry Liguori said...

I think this may be trickier than I thought...I'll admit, its not the usual song they give on the breeding grounds.

December 16, 2011 at 8:57 AM  
Blogger Kiirsi said...

I don't know much and am just taking a stab here, but I agree with Bryce...some kind of Grosbeak? The song sounds vaguely Robin-like to me.

December 16, 2011 at 9:23 AM  
Blogger Stephanie Greenwood said...

Pine Grosbeak?

December 16, 2011 at 10:09 AM  
Blogger Tim Avery said...

I retract my earlier comment and clue. I am wrong about the ID and suggest looking away from the finches.

December 16, 2011 at 12:27 PM  
Blogger Jeff Bilsky said...

I retract my earlier comment about my bird-dream! The Pine Grosbeak I saw was lying to me.

December 16, 2011 at 12:42 PM  
Blogger Stephanie Greenwood said...

Okay, I'm going to come out of left field and say Spotted Towhee. It's not their typical mating song, but I've heard one sing like this in the Fall. It totally tricked me. I thought I was listening to a Grosbeak and then when it came out of the brush I had to laugh.

December 16, 2011 at 5:02 PM  
Blogger Stephanie Greenwood said...

Goll...could be a Townsend's Solitaire, too. Tricky.

December 16, 2011 at 6:20 PM  
Anonymous Jerry Liguori said...

Stephanie came up with it...Solitaire, fun quiz and thanks for the participation. I love the blog.

Often, birds sing a bit different song in winter. Another thing to note, as I was studying songbirds in a forested swamp back East in 1993, I realized that male Redstarts in their first year of adulthood (Yellowstarts as many call them) always had a distinctly different song than the older males.

December 16, 2011 at 6:38 PM  
Blogger Stephanie Greenwood said...

Sweet! Only took three tries haha.

December 16, 2011 at 8:42 PM  
Anonymous Jerry Liguori said...

Third times a charm....

December 17, 2011 at 8:27 PM  

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