Dear Tweeters:

The song described second-hand by Michael Price on June 11 as "a
series of mockingbird-like repeated notes"-- if the singer was indeed
correctly identified as a Black-headed Grosbeak-- is a highly aberrant
one for that species. The grosbeak's normal song, a series of rapid,
rich warbles, is easily confused by inexperienced (or
hearing-challenged) birders with that of an American Robin, a Hepatic
Tanager, or perhaps even with a Red-eyed Vireo. However, it bears no
resemblance whatsoever to the normal song of a Yellow-breasted Chat.
Among thousands of Black-headed Grosbeaks that I have heard
singing over several decades, I have never heard one sing in the
manner described by Michael. (I acknowledge that Michael was not the
actual observer, and the description of the song may have lost a
little in the translation.) This is not to say that birds do not
display highly unusual songs once in a very long time. I recall a
Savannah Sparrow that I saw many years ago on Iona Island, which
repeatedly sang an unmistakable Horned Lark song, followed by a short
Savannah-like buzz. I spent quite a while looking for the Horned Lark
before I realized that the song was coming from a Savannah Sparrow!
Mistakes in song learning by birds do occur sometimes, but occurrences
like this are extremely rare. Have any other Tweeters heard a Savannah
sing a Horned Lark song? I doubt it.
Just for the record, on June 6th, Lloyd Esralson and I saw the
Yellow-breasted Chat on Sea Island for several minutes, singing from
dead trees in the spot described by Michael. We heard several
Black-headed Grosbeaks in the vicinity, and all of them had perfectly
normal grosbeak songs.
Michael's point that one should exercise caution in identifying
birds by songs and calls is well taken. On my first visit to Madera
Canyon in Arizona, about 30 years ago, I recorded Black-headed
Grosbeak in my notes for 3 days in a row, based on birds heard
singing. On the fourth day, I happened to see one of the "grosbeaks",
and to my surprise, it was a Hepatic Tanager. (There were grosbeaks in
the area too, but I had clearly been misidentifying some Hepatic
Tanagers as grosbeaks.) The songs of these two species are quite
similar, although the call-notes are very different.
However, the main reason I am writing is to dispel any notion that
the type of grosbeak song described by Michael is anything other than
a very rare aberration in that species. This song is so unusual that,
if were possible to tape the song and analyze it on a sound
spectrograph, it would be worthy of publication. (I wish I had been
able to tape that Savannah Sparrow song!) The normal songs of
Black-headed Grosbeaks and Yellow-breasted Chats are about as distinct
as those of any two species you could name.

Wayne Weber
114-525 Dalgleish Drive
Kamloops, B.C. V2C 6E4
Phone: (250) 377-8865
wayne_weber at bc.sympatico.ca


-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Price <mprice at mindlink.bc.ca>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Friday, June 11, 1999 9:35 PM
Subject: Grosbeak/Chat Song Resemblance


>Hi Tweets,
>
>Just to pass on a heads-up.
>
>Couple of friends were checking out the YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT Icteria
virens
>(very rare in Vancouver BC) that's been hanging around MacDonald Road
on Sea
>Island in NW Richmond, joined a big group of birders standing around
waiting
>for the bird to sing. Though one person said they'd heard it briefly
>previous, they had no luck in the area it's usually been heard in
(it's been
>audible from the road near some dead cedars on the E side of the
road), so
>they moseyed a little further N on MacD Rd toward the boat launch
parking lot.
>
>They suddenly heard a series of mockingbird-like repeated notes
coming from
>cover and immediately assumed this was the chat; within a few
minutes,
>however, they located the author, a male BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK
Pheucticus
>melanocephalus. They watched for several minutes as the bird sang an
>unconventional, chat-like song of repeated notes and phrases, then
sang
>elements of a conventional grosbeak song. In their opinion, it would
have
>been easy to confuse this song for that of a chat.
>
>(It may be that the grosbeak responds with a conventional song to
another
>grosbeak but will tailor a mimic-song if feeling threatened by the
presence
>of a strange, possibly competitive species.)
>
>As this bird was in the direction pointed out by the birder who
claimed to
>have heard the chat, the instance points up the need for care in
identifying
>the chat in absence of visual confirmation.
>
>Michael Price
>Vancouver BC Canada
>mprice at mindlink.net
>
>