This looks like the "Continental" form of the Black-capped
Chickadee song, but it sounds very buzzy. This bird was recorded at Wood River Wetland, Klamath County, Oregon, on 28
April 2011. His tail feathers are bent, so he can
probably be identified individually until he molts this summer. (I saw a "bent-
tail" bird there in March 2011.)
Is this sound a
"mistake" or an "innovation" that has caught on locally? In other words, is this
variation paying off for "Bent-tail?" He does have a mate. I wonder if other
black-caps in the immediate area, if there are any, use this variant song. Is is
distributed all around the Klamath Basin? I hope birders will get out in the
field and do the listening or recording that will answer this question. If you
do, write me: mccalluma at appliedbioacoustics.com.
This is the most unusual-sounding chickadee song I've ever encountered, but it's
not hard to explain. Birds can convert a pure whistle into a buzz easily,
by modulating the sound made by one side of the syrinx with a second sound made
by the other.
I discussed this in
Birding, volume 46 (2010), number 4. See Figure 11 on page 61. This
sonogram has the same frequency resolution as those of the typical songs shown
on this page. You can see on it that the buzz ends before the end of the second
note, which sounds like a normal black-cap whistle when it is extracted from the
buzzy part.
A buzzy song like this is highly unusual for the Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees,
and for several others that sing with pure whistles, but buzzes are used in other chickadee
vocalizations. In fact, one might ask, "Why don't we hear this more often?"
Klamath County, Oregon; 04-28-2011.
