Archosaurs

There are three different songs here sung by a Western Meadowlark. The first repeats three times, the second song repeats 4 times, and the third song is repeated three times. This was recorded on Marble Hot Springs Road at the 2nd 90 degree turn as the Meadowlark sang from the telephone wire above. In the background you will hear cows moo and a few other birds call as well, but the Western Meadowlark is clearly the focal subject of the recording. This was recorded with a Fostex FR-2 and Sennheiser shotgun microphone, ME66. The photo attached is a spectrogram of Western Meadowlark made in Raven Pro. (taxonomy:binomial="Sturnella neglecta")

Every morning when he walks the dog, retired professor of natural history Peter Slater can identify as many as thirty birds by their song alone. On a walk in a Scottish town with Ari Daniel Shapiro, Slater explains what two common songsters, the chaffinch and winter wren, are singing about, and how even city dwellers can learn to “bird by ear” in their own neighborhoods, with rewarding results. Download a transcript of the podcast Chaffinch, Photo Credit: Blake Matheson read moreDuration: 5:21Published: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 20:30:18 +0000

A Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) coos this soft purring sound as he leaves his perch in a dead Juniper in Sedona, Arizona.

This bird was recorded across the street from our apartment. I have not been able to actually see the bird, but for weeks I have been listening to it sing/call every morning. To be singing on our busy street (Massachusetts Ave, NE, just a few blocks from the Capitol in Washington, DC), it must be a common bird that thrives in the city, so I'd like to know this city dweller's name. I'll update this note when I learn who it is. UPDATE: HOUSE WREN! Thank you, Mark, Perry, Martyn, Lang, Kristen, and Seth! June 15, 2012, recorded with a Fostex FR-2, Sennheiser ME-66 Shotgun mic, Rycote windscreen. Sonnogram created using Cornell's Raven Pro Sound Analysis software. (taxonomy:binomial="Troglodytes aedon")

This week, we hear a story in two acts about a very familiar bird—the common starling. It's a non-native species that is omnivorous, gregarious, adaptable, and highly successful in its adopted land. It turns out we humans have inadvertently put out the welcome mat for this alien species. Act One tells the story about this winged invader with an $800 million appetite for fruit crops. As for Act Two, we’ll let independent producer Josh Kurz and the theater troupe Higher Mammals explain. read moreDuration: 6:06Published: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:06:37 +0000

Northern Goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) have a distinctive call. This one was sitting in a large sycamore tree in Andrew Molero State Park, near Big Sur, California in April, 1999. He had been chased there by a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus).

An altercation among adults escalates to include the young as well. Recorded at Dyson Lane in Sierra Nevada Valley in California on June 17, 2100 11:30 am with a Fostex FR-2 and Sennheiser ME66 shotgun mic. (taxonomy:binomial="Fulica americana")

In a Beijing green space larger than New York’s Central Park, biologist Bao Weidong is scanning the trees, looking for a shy bird that’s increasingly scarce: the long-eared owl. There used to be dozens of them across the city, but they’re vanishing. On the other side of the city, a wildlife rescue center is working to save other raptors that have run afoul of the city’s many perils. Can the raptors of Beijing stage a comeback, in the face of runaway development? Will the people of Beijing make room for raptors? Image Credit: Asio otus, Piet Reens. CC BY-SA read moreDuration: 5:28Published: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 03:35:39 +0000

Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis macularius) are the most numerous Sandpipers in Costa Rica, especially inland. They are neotropical migrants. This is a flight call.

This was from a Wilson Snipe that landed in the grass. It then walked through the tall grass towards us making this alarm call and when in sight we could see the tail was fanned and wings dropped in a distracting display to lure us from the nest toward her. At the end you can hear the wings flap as she flies off into the sky. The photo is of the habitat -- a beautiful meadow along the northern coral fence west of the old shepherd's shack. Recorded in Carman Valley in Sierra Nevada region of California on June 27, 2011 9:58AM with Fostex FR-2, Sennheiser ME66 shotgun mic. (taxonomy:binomial="Gallinago delicata")

We humans learn some of our earliest life lessons from our brothers and sisters, watching what toys our siblings play with and what treats they stash away for later. In this Halloween season podcast, Ari Daniel Shapiro journeys to Austria to learn how such social learning happens in a spooky bird—the raven. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain Download a transcript of this podcast read moreDuration: 5:26Published: Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:52:05 +0000

Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis macularius) are the most numerous Sandpipers in Costa Rica, especially inland. They are neotropical migrants. This is a call from a foraging bird.

The city of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory lies in the heart of crocodile country. In the 1950s, saltwater crocodiles were shot, skinned, and turned into shoes and handbags. After hunting was banned in the 1970s, crocodile numbers climbed. Now there’s a croc for every man, woman, and child in Darwin. Can the human citizens learn to live alongside their toothy neighbors? Image Credit: Gerald and Buff Corsi. CalPhotos. CC BY-NC-SA read moreDuration: 5:32Published: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 14:40:17 +0000

A Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) sings atop a fence at a small finca (farm) near Fortuna Falls. This was the only singing red-wing that I found on the 6/98 trip. His song and calls are "thin" compared to ours in the US, but I have only this one sample to go by.

The arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) makes an incredible migration each year. These small birds travel distances of more than 50,000 miles, from pole to pole, crossing through temperate and tropical regions along the way. Carsten Egevang used geo-locator tags to track some of these terns, and he shares their story with us in this tour.  Photo Credit: Blake Matheson, Flickr: EOL Images Download transcript read moreDuration: 5:38Published: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:29:31 +0000

Red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) inhabit the marshes around Peck's Lake [Arizona] along with their cousins, the Yellow-Headed Blackbirds. They have several vocalizations, three of which are represented in this sample.

And here are "Four and Twenty" Blackbirds (Red-Winged) all singing at once.

Here's that gurgling song that everyone associates with wetlands. This one is in Peck's Lake [Arizona] in mid-March, staking his claim on a prime piece of marshy real estate. Listen for his "chacks" and whistles between the loud calls.

This unusual "piping" by a male Red-winged Blackbird was directed at an interloping male. The calls were actually about 5 seconds apart, but I took out some silence in the interest of bandwidth here. I'd not heard this call used to warn another male before, but the intruder got the point and soon left the area.

Another group songfest - this time from a "Lek" of 25 or so Red-wings in the morning. I'm not sure this is a true Lek, but the ingredients are all there - lots of males (2/3 of those in attendance are male) singing with lots of females listening, and since it's in the Spring (2/16/99) and in the morning, it seems like Lek behavior. Note the silence midway through the sample - sudden and almost orchestrated - something distracted them for a moment.

In this sample a young male seems to "stutter" when he calls - recorded near Pinal Air Park, southern Arizona, 4/99.

Rufous-crowned Sparrows (Aimophila ruficeps) sing this Spring song when they're looking for love around Peck's Lake [Arizona]. This one was in the creosote scrub which grows on the steep hillsides around the lake.

Rufous-crowned Sparrows (Aimophila ruficeps) are one of the most common sparrows in Costa Rica. They like urban and semi-rural field environments, like parks, soccer fields, etc. This song is sung over and over, and loudly!

Two different hens at Peck's Lake [Arizona] in October, 1997.