ML29874081
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
- Sounds
- Song
- Playback
- Playback not used
Media notes
This was the only recording I managed to get. It had been singing more initially, but by the time I recognized the song, called a friend, and found the app to try to record it, the bird was singing more intermittently.
Observation details
There is a marsh next to a parking area at my work, and I had stepped out intending to take a walk at the Alviso marina, and I realized I was hearing a song from the marsh that was vaguely familiar and clearly something interesting. Took me 10-15 seconds to realize it was a Bell's Vireo. I got my bins from the car, and then pished it in. Came in briefly giving pretty nice looks. I had the bird from perhaps 1:25 - 1:35. Slightly drab looking. Quite white below, slightly contrasting gray head with very slightly more olive back. Much less conspicuous white eye ring and eye line than either WAVI or CAVI. Didn't notice a wing bar. The bird gave a slightly long-tailed look and tended to cock its tail as it hopped around in willows and dead branches. Looked like it was foraging a bit, but it also sang quite a bit initially. While waiting for a friend to arrive, the bird kept moving east along the marsh until it ran out of habitat. It was singing fairly often at the start but became less frequent by the time I tried to record it on the iPhone VoiceMemo app. I got the one very poor snippet of its song around the 2 second mark on the attached audio. I'm somewhat familiar with Bell's Vireo, and I'm very familiar with all the possible similar species in N. Cal. Bell's Vireo used to breed in Santa Clara county decades ago, but there are very few recent N. Cal records (and I was aware of the rarity of this sighting).
Technical information
- Recorder
- iPhone VoiceMemo app
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 41.96 KB