Subject: Re: Red Crossbills (was Red Birds)
Date: Aug 30 14:51:19 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


Jim Elder wrote:

>I forgot to mention that many of the Red Crossbills in the Olympics were
>singing this weekend as well. I'd never heard the song, such as it is.
>Do the different types have different songs or is it just the call notes
>that are different?

Tom Hahn, who I think knows these birds as well as anyone but Jeff Groth
(who made the discovery there were so many sibling species), thinks there
are some differences in the songs, but he wasn't able to sort them out due
to too few recordings. Flight calls are where the differences lie, and
sometimes the distinctive flight calls are included as parts of the song.
There are also a variety of other calls, and some of them seem to be
different in different types, but only the flight calls have been
well-documented.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416