ML292318881

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

While foraging in a hackberry tree, the Blue Mockingbird began to vocalize. The "song bout" consisted of about twenty calls of about three principle types. The cadence was very slow, with there being anywhere from a 1.5-3.4 second interval between notes. Representative calls are illustrated with a spectrogram (fig. 1). The commonest call was the Turdus-like call, which had a somewhat reedy quality, distantly reminiscent of Pine Siskin. Another common call in the first "song bout", was a very low-pitched, trilled call, distantly reminiscent of Rough-winged Swallow, or Dickcissel (slowed down). The bird also gave one very loud, ringing "whit" note. During the entire observation, there were three "song bouts" as described above. This was analogous to calling often heard outside of the breeding season in Mexico, and was different then the more melodious, "full song" I have heard from this species in Mexico. These song bouts typically contain a certain amount of mimicry, perhaps the Turdus like call is an imitation of Rufous-backed Robin. Figure 2 is presented for comparative purposes, crudely illustrating the general pitch and duration of the notes within a "song bout".

Technical information

Dimensions

720 pixels x 480 pixels

Original file size

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