Contents

 

Preface    ix

Acknowledgments    xi

1. Beginnings    1

Hearing and seeing bird sounds    1

The Bewick's wren    10

The American robin    23

Good listening, good questions, this book    37

2. How songs develop    42

Learning songs: where, when, and from whom    44

The white-crowned sparrow  44 

The song sparrow     55

Borrowed songs--mimicry    68

The northern mockingbird    68

Songs that aren't learned    79

Tyrant flycatchers--Alder and willow flycatchers, eastern phoebe 79

Why some species learn and others don't    89

The three-wattled bellbird    89

The sedge wren     102

3. Dialects. How and why songs vary from place to place    119

The great marsh wren divide    120   

The black-capped chickadee    135

The chestnut-sided warbler    145

Travels with towhees, eastern and spotted    157

The tufted titmouse    165

4. Extremes of male song     177

Songbirds without a song    179

The blue jay    179

Songbirds with especially complex songs    191

The brown thrasher    191

The sage thrasher    202

The winter wren    214

Songbirds with especially beautiful songs   225

The Bachman's sparrow    225

The wood thrush    237

The hermit thrush    255

Music to our ears    267

Songs on the wing    276

The American woodcock    276

Tireless singers    287

The whip-poor-will    287

The red-eyed vireo    297

5. The hour before the dawn    304

The eastern wood-pewee   304

Chipping and Brewer's sparrows    313

The eastern bluebird    325

6. She also sings    335

The barred owl    336

The Carolina wren     346

The northern cardinal    357

Appendix I: Bird Sounds on the Compact Disc    366

Appendix II: Techniques    402

Appendix III: Taxonomic List of species names    411   

Notes and Bibliography    415

Index    452