[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: b&w warbler, weird-singing towhee



Folks,

This is true, I had a first hand experience of this just last monday. At
work there was a  Towhee in the top of a tree singing like a Robin. I came
outside about 10 mins later an it was back to the Towhee call. It stuck me
strange at the time, but not anymore.

Randy Emmitt
Rougemont,NC
www.rlephoto.com

Kent Fiala wrote:

> There are many reported instances of birds singing "wrong" songs.  A
> recent note (1998) in The Wilson Bulletin by Jon Greenlaw et al
> documents Eastern Towhees mimicking alarm calls of Blue Jays, Brown
> Thrashers and American Robins.  I've personally heard a Towhee do a Blue
> Jay call (I'm pretty sure this was one of the same birds that Greenlaw
> et al report on) and have heard a couple of different Towhees do Robin
> alarm calls.  How often do we actually check out Blue Jay and Robin
> calls to verify who's making them?
>
> They also cite a 1977 paper (also Wilson Bulletin) by Don Borror titled
> "Rufous-sided Towhee mimicking Carolina Wren and Field Sparrow" but I'd
> have to dig though some boxes to get that one out ;-).
>
> Kent Fiala
> Raleigh NC