I have to say I'm with Wayne on this. Finch songs are
pretty different to a practiced ear (I started at age 13
and am coming up on 34 years now).

I made a sonogram from recodings sampled for Keller's
"Bird Songs of California". House Finch is higher, more
rambly and contains more fuzzy notes. Purple Finch is
lower, richer and more robin-like.

http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/temp/finch_sono.jpg

It's sort of like comparing Britney Spears to Ella Fitzgerald.
Britney's competent and catchy, but there's something missing.
Ella's a professional, robust and unmistakable.

----- Original Message -----
From: Wayne C. Weber
To: MARTYN STEWART
Cc: TWEETERS
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 10:05 AM
Subject: Distinguishing Purple Finch and House Finch songs


> Martyn,
>
> Unlike your experience, I have never had any difficulty in
> distinguishing Purple Finch songs from House Finch songs. Bravery is
> not involved here. I would describe a typical Purple Finch song as
> being longer and more rapidly delivered than House Finch songs, and
> without the burry notes so typical of House Finches. Purple Finch
> songs also usually include mimicry of call-notes of several other
> species-- have you noticed this? It should be possible to confirm
> this by comparing sonagrams.

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

Half-a-bee, philosophically must ipso-facto half not-be.
But half the bee, has got to bee Vis-a-vis its entity...
d'you see?
But can a bee be said to be or not to be an entire bee
When half the bee is not a bee due to some ancient injury?
-Monty Python

http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html