Here you go Tweeters all - from a man I know. Thought of him immediately when I saw your posts. Hope this helps.

Caryn / Wedgwood

> "From my training as a bird-song ethologist in the 1970s, I know that most birds are in the range of 1 - 8 KHz. It is not just frequency range that determines species identity, but the order and patterning of sounds is very important. For most species there is some level of learning involved in the fine detail of each syllable. It is like a human baby innately recognizing the general ranges of human sound, but having to learn French or English words. For indigo buntings, there was an over 90% overlap in syllables used in New York, Michigan and Kentucky populations, from a catalog of about 100 syllable types. Individuals could be recognized by the pattern of repeated syllable at a distance: Joe is 1:2:1:1 and Frank is 1:2:2:2.
> Up close, they can tell if it is an indigo bunting or a fake song. I made computer generated syllables that had the same ranges as real syllables, but they did not elicit territorial defense. One syllable repeated does elicit territorial defense, as per Steve Emlen, so I tried coping a real syllable and it did elicit defense responses.
> My old Golden field guide has sound spectragraphs of the species songs, as probably most field guides do now. While I do not have time to join Tweeters at this time, I would be happy to answer questions at ken at shiovitz.com."
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