Life histories of North American wood warblers, Part 1 (of 2)Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American wood warblers, Part 1 (of 2)
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- North America; Passeriformes; Wood warblers
H. H. Tuttle (1919) describes an extreme example of behavior simulating
a wounded bird. He says: "She struck the leaves with a slight thud and
turned over on her side, while the toes of one up-stretched leg
clutched at the air and her tail spread slowly into a pointed fan. * * *
Deceived for a moment then, I turned a step in her direction. She lay
quite still except for a quivering wing. I reached out toward her with a
small stick and touched her side; she screamed pitifully; I stretched
out my hand to pick her up, but with a last effort she righted herself,
and by kicking desperately with one leg, succeeded in pushing forward a
few inches."
We associate this warbler with dry, rocky hillsides where the ground is
strewn with dead leaves, but the bird may breed also in the dry portions
of shady, wooded swamps.
_Voice._--The black-and-white is one of the high-voiced singers. Its
song is made up of a series of squeaky couplets given with a
back-and-forth rhythm, a seesawing effect, like the ovenbird's song
played on a fine, delicate instrument. It may be suggested by
pronouncing the syllables _we see_ rapidly four or five times in a
whispered voice. In the distance the song has a sibilant quality; when
heard near at hand a high, clear whistle may be detected in the notes.
The final note in the song is the accented _see_.
Albert R. Brand (1938), in his mechanically recorded songs of warblers,
placed the black-and-white's song as the fourth highest in pitch in his
last of 16 species, the black-poll, blue-winged, and the Blackburnian
being higher. He gives the approximate mean (vibrations per second) of
the black and white as 6,900 and of the blackpool as 8,900.
Aretas A. Saunders (MS.) says: "The pitch of the songs varies, according
to my records, from B´´´ to E´´´´, a range of three and a half tones
more than an octave. A single song, however, does not vary more than
three and a half tones."
A second song, not heard, I think, until the bird has been on its
breeding ground for some time, is rather more pleasing, less monotonous,
than the first. It is longer, somewhat faster, more lively, and is
modulated in pitch. Francis H. Allen (MS.) speaks of it thus: "Later in
the season a more elaborate song is very commonly heard. I have been
accustomed to syllabify it as _weesy, weesy, weesy, weesy, woosy, woosy,
weesy, weesy_. The notes indicated by _woosy_ really differ from the
others only by being pitched lower."
Occasionally we hear aberrant songs which prove puzzling until we can
see the singer. Allen remarks that he has heard several such songs, and
I remember hearing one in which the lower note of each couplet was
reduplicated, thereby strongly suggested one of the songs of the
Blackburnian warbler. Sometimes _Mniotilta_ sings during flight. I once
heard a song from a bird flying within a few feet of me--at this range a
sound of piercing sharpness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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