Hi Tweets,

Can anyone out there help me with this question? The song sparrows that
breed in Seattle are resident - that is, they are on their breeding
grounds year round. For a proposed study of song sharing, the lab I am
part of would like to find a site that

1) Is less than a day's drive from Seattle (the closer the better)
2) Has a migratory population of song sparrows
3) that are common enough locally that we could study a group of
10-20 males on adjacent territories

I know that song sparrows are *not* what the rabid lister tends to
focus on when birding. Think of it as a test of how thoroughly you know
an area and how detailed your memories are. I believe all the song
sparrows on the east side of the cascade crest are migratory - is that
right- Andy?

The study we propose to do on these birds is to contrast song sharing in
migratory song sparrows with that of our well studied resident race. The
typical song sparrow in our resident population (Discovery Park, Seattle)
shares 1 to 7 of its 8 or so song types with at least one neighbor (40%
shared songs, on average). It's been suggested that migratory song
sparrows don't share songs with their neighbors, but that has not been
studied conclusively.

Thanks for any suggestions you can offer,

P.S. Gorgeous scenery and other birds are a definite plus!

Chris Hill
Seattle, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu