[Mnbird] Odd vocal habit

[Whyte, Linda]

I don't know if you have any cell phone birding apps that include sample
vocalizations of the species, but you might be surprised at the number of
different sounds/songs some birds use. Sibley has 10 different recordings
for American Robin, some of which the bird uses for specific situations. It
might be interesting for you to determine what's currently happening in
this bird's life when he's exhibiting the repetitious vocal behavior.
Linda Whyte

On Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 1:48 PM Steve Claas via Mnbird <
mnbird at lists.mnbird.net> wrote:

> I’ve never posted to this list before, so it’s somewhat embarrassing
> that my inaugural post would concern what many would consider a rather
> mundane species. Here’s the skinny:
>
> All this spring I’ve been hearing a bird song near our house (Ramsey
> County, St Paul, Hamline-Midway) that I could not quite place.  It is
> (mostly) a three-note sequence with tones roughly matching the “drink
> your tea” of a towhee, although more abrupt than a towhee and without
> the trill on the final note.  At times the three-note sequence is
> followed by two quick tweets of roughly the same pitch as the final of
> the trio. This morning I finally wandered over to see if I could
> discover who was singing.
>
> The bird was clearly visible, singing proudly from a nearly bare branch:
> an American robin.
>
> Although the tonal qualities of the song are somewhat robin-like, the
> song is (in my experience) not at all what I associate with a robin.
> There’s none of the 2-5 warbling repetitions before switching to another
> phrase that’s typical of robin song.  No “cheer up, cheerio.” No
> agitated “chirp-chirp, cluck-cluck.” No swooping “whinnie” call.  This
> bird only repeats the three- (or five-) note sequence over and over with
> a ten-second interval between songs. The other oddity is that the bird
> continues to sing all day long.  In general, the other neighborhood
> robins are back to their mostly dawn & dusk routine.
>
> Not to make too much of the towhee comparison, but it has occurred to me
> that, when the two rapid notes are tacked on to the usual three, it
> almost sounds as if a bird without the equipment for a flutey trill were
> doing the best it could with a faux trill made of short, distinct notes.
>
> For anyone else interested in this curiosity, performances can be heard
> daily at the intersection of Lafond and Syndicate in St Paul.
>
> I am, of course, curious to know if others have ever made similar
> observations.
>
> Steve Claas
>
> claa0002 at umn.edu
>
>
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