< I tried to listen to your posted links but they stopped loading partway
through. Perhaps heavy load on your webserver?>



I get a fair bit of traffic on the site but generally, you can get the sound
bytes with little trouble, how are you trying to access it, with the media
player or Real Audio?



< I would dispute that the House and Purple Finch calls are close. In fact,
call notes are the best way to distinguish these species in flight, the
flat "pit" of the Purple Finch being very different from the finchy, rising
"chwEEE" type and other more House Sparrow-like call notes of a House
Finch.>



Of course it was the song I was I was referring too, this is why I have the
two songs posted as a comparison and yes, I will agree with you, the flight
calls are very different from each other but remember, the Purple finch also
has the "chwEEE" calls you refer too, especially the feeding calls, they are
very similar to the house finch, the Pine Siskin also has a kind of "chwEEE"
call too when feeding. I get all 3 of these on my feeders and it is a chorus
of "chwEE'S"



< If by call you mean song, then yes, they are closer but still separable.
The western form of the Purple Finch's song is an energetic (despite what
Sibley says), rapid, structured jumble of notes versus the equally energetic
but less rapidly delivered and more loosely structured song of the House
Finch.>



If you listen to a house finch for long periods, they go into this variable
warble and then back out again, but it is a steady tempo and mostly
consistent and melodic, Listen to the Purple finch and this too has a very
melodic tone and pitch to it but at times it sounds like it has to hurry to
the end of its song, I wouldn't know what Sibley says about this but I would
not say that the song is too energetic as my samples suggest.



<The loudest and strongest notes of a Purple Finch song are usually near the
beginning or middle whereas those of the House Finch are often at the end.>



Not necessarily so, House finches will often start a song off very energetic
and loud, especially when in competition for a mate with others, this
statement depends on what season and what time of day, very often I have
heard the House finch give off very loud introductionary song in the morning
when all is quiet making his case for territory.



Tell me what you think of this call and what do you think it/they is/are?

http://www.naturesound.org/Workshop.htm

Click on the sonogram to the right of that page for the song

Regards

Martyn

Martyn Stewart
Birds Sounds Digitally Recorded at:
http://www.naturesound.org
N47.65543 W121.98428
Redmond. Washington. USA
Make every Garden a wildlife Habitat


-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Jack Bowling
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 6:05 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: Marymoor Park Report (Redmond, King Co., WA) 2004/03/17

On Wed, Mar 17, 2004 at 10:50:02PM -0800, Martyn Stewart wrote:
> Michael you said
> <Purple Finch 1 seen, maybe heard more>
>
> That is a brave thing to say and I trust your judgment, identifying the
> sound of a purple finch! I had to see the bird while recording it to make
> sure I positively identified it as a purple finch call because as you
know,
> the purple finch is so similar to the house finch call, sometimes I have
had
> to make a sonogram of the sound to see the slight difference in pitch, it
is
> not always evident to the human ear. Incidentally, I have posted the two
> sounds for your information; ironically, the purple finch recording was
made
> at Marymoor Park, April, 2001
>
> Purple finch call
> http://www.naturesound.org/Sound%20Files/Purple%20Finch.mp3
>
>
> House finch call
> http://www.naturesound.org/Sound%20Files/House%20Finch.mp3

I tried to listen to your posted links but they stopped loading partway
through. Perhaps heavy load on your webserver?

I would dispute that the House and Purple Finch calls are close. In fact,
call notes are the best way to distinguish these species in flight, the
flat "pit" of the Purple Finch being very different from the finchy, rising
"chwEEE" type and other more House Sparrow-like call notes of a House Finch.

If by call you mean song, then yes, they are closer but still separable.
The western form of the Purple Finch's song is an energetic (despite what
Sibley says), rapid, structured jumble of notes versus the equally energetic
but less rapidly delivered and more loosely structured song of the House
Finch.
The loudest and strongest notes of a Purple Finch song are usually near the
beginning or middle whereas those of the House Finch are often at the end.

--
Jack Bowling
mailto: jbinpg at shaw.ca