Clear Whistles and Buzzy Trills

The White-Crowned Sparrow

 

Outside our kitchen window, flocks of White-crowned Sparrows are adding music to the bright green of spring.  However, their lovely songs are just a cover-up for their greedy hunger and aggressive chasing away of our resident birds.  Our guess is that they have arrived from California and are fueling up for the next leg of their journey to Alaska where they will pair up, build nests, either on the ground or in shrubs, and lay eggs.  Fortunately, spring brings lots of food for our resident birds; they are on the fringes biding their time until the flocks of sparrows eat their fill and continue on.

 

Photo taken with my new Olympus E-M5

Here is an interesting tidbit:

 

"The song of the White-crowned Sparrow is one of the most-studied sounds in all of animal behavior. Different subspecies across the country sing clearly different songs, but they’re all recognizable by the sweet, whistling introduction, a succession of jumbled whistles, and a buzz or trill near the end. Songs last 2-3 seconds. Females sing only rarely" (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/white-crowned_sparrow/sounds).