December 27: Birdcall

[neverspent]

The other day I was walking out by the garden and I heard some high pitched, thin whistles that were very familiar. I looked up of course, and because the wild cherry tree above was bare I was finally able to match the call to a bird: cedar waxwings. I felt silly because I already knew, I just didn't know I knew. Still satisfying, though.

Comments

[phoenix64]

What darlings - we have Bohemian waxwings up here that at times travel in huge flocks to go hunting for berries. They make quite the spectacle.

I suck at identifying bird songs.

[neverspent]

Oh! I have seen the Bohemians in books, alongside the cedar waxwings. They look so handsome! And it sounds like they behave just like their cousins. When I was in college the cedar waxwings would come through in great numbers, descend on the ornamental pear trees and laurels, and strip them of their berries before flying away. (...to deposit the seeds elsewhere, hooray for bird dispersal!)

I am really bad at identifying bird songs, too. It's hard to learn them, because it's so seldom that you can actually see the bird that is making the particular call. (Mockingbirds are easy because they are *such* show-offs.) That's one of the main reasons I bought the iBird app for my smart phone -- it's a huge database with all the information a field guide would have PLUS a huge library of birdcalls. So, if nothing else, I can browse through the birds I know well and learn their calls that way. It's not the kind of thing where you can hold up your phone and have it listen to a bird call, then it will identify it... but that would be SO COOL.

[phoenix64]

It's not the kind of thing where you can hold up your phone and have it listen to a bird call, then it will identify it... but that would be SO COOL.

If they can do it for music I don't see why not!