Ted Don’t know about night calls, but calls in general are quite different for the Western Coastal “Yellow-billed” vs Gambell’s. There are call note differences that are marked in Rufous-collared Sparrow in South America too. Not sure what to make of some of this, although if I would have split “Yellow-billed” White-crows as a species years ago if someone was crazy enough to give me taxonomic control of the universe.
Alvaro Alvaro Jaramillo <mailto:alv...@alvarosadventures.com> alv...@alvarosadventures.com www.alvarosadventures.com From: bounce-2419656-53236...@mm.list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-2419656-53236...@mm.list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Ted Floyd Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2017 1:50 PM To: NFC-L <nf...@list.cornell.edu> Subject: [nfc-l] Does "Gambel's" White-crowned Sparrow have a different flight call? Hey, all. This is totally conjectural. And it's based on a small sample size. But, hey, ya gotta start somewhere. So...a bit more than a month ago, I posted a link to a "Gambel's" White-crowned Sparrow (subspecies gambelii) flight call I'd uploaded to eBird/Macaulay, and one person flat-out questioned the ID. That's cool. Always good to maintain a healthy skepticism. However, the bird in question was perched right in front of me, in broad daylight. And now I have another such recording, definitely of a different bird (different age), and it's not dissimilar from the first. Both have this little squiggle at the end. And the only Xeno-Canto upload of gambelii flight calls (other than my own recordings), by Tayler Brooks, also shows the squiggle. Again, a pretty small sample. And flight calls are variable. So I'm not wedded to this. But I thought I'd put it out there. Here are my two Macaulay uploads: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/75818451 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/70518311 And here is the Tayler Brooks recording: http://www.xeno-canto.org/41863 It might well be nothing at all. But, given that Bill Evans has mentioned that there's an effort under way to expand the library of flight calls for Flight Calls of Migratory Birds (hooray!), I guess I've been thinking a bit more about taxa like gambelii that understandably aren't included in the first/Eastern edition of Flight Calls. Ted Floyd Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado, USA -- NFC-L List Info: <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave Archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> The Mail Archive <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> Surfbirds <http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NFC> Birding.ABA.Org Please submit your observations to eBird <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> ! -- -- NFC-L List Info: Welcome and Basics � http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME Rules and Information � http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES Subscribe, Configuration and Leave � http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm Archives: The Mail Archive � http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html Surfbirds � http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L Birding.ABA.Org � http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NFC Please submit your observations to eBird! ��http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --