Thanks John and Rick (and all those who wrote to me privately) for the
feedback :-).
The possibility of using spectrograms as a tracking tool for ID'ing
individual birds has become very intriguing to me. For example, if it
becomes established that adult Henslow's Sparrows only have one song in
their repertoire that never changes, and *IF* it turns out that its own
song is unique, like a fingerprint, then if the same spectrogram is
recorded elsewhere, one could possibly assume it was the same individual.
This line of reasoning had me return just now to the eBird database and
review the most recent audio files for 2018, hoping that I might find the
2017 Shawangunk bird represented somewhere in their treasure trove. The
result is that I came across this eBird checklist from Centre County
Pennsylvania on 25 May 2018 that contains an audio file of a Henslow's.
Its spectrogram appears to match the spectrogram of last year's Henslow's
seen at Shawangunk:
Here's the Pennsylvania bird ( 25 May 2018):
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S46124750
Here's one of the recordings of the New York bird (27 May 2017):
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S37188198
Do folks agree that the spectrograms and recordings look and sound fairly
similar?
I am cc'ing Nathan Pieplow on this, but he's based in Colorado and may not
subscribe to this list. If his reply appears off-list, I will post it.
Karen Fung
NYC
On Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 2:45 PM, JOHN TURNER wrote:
> I totally agree with Rick.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 07:51 PM, rc...@nyc.rr.com wrote:
>
> Karen: Don’t confuse lack of interest with folks not having enough
> expertise on the topic to feel they are qualified to contribute to the
> discussion (e.g., me). I for, one, was fascinated, and look forward to
> further developments.
>
>
>
> Rick Cech
>
>
>
> P.S. Also add kudos for the fine tern id discussion, Joe, Shai & others.
> We’re fortunate to have individuals in the community with such depths of
> insight and experience.
>
>
>
> *From:* bounce-122638804-3714...@list.cornell.edu <
> bounce-122638804-3714...@list.cornell.edu> *On Behalf Of *Karen Fung
> *Sent:* Thursday, June 14, 2018 2:46 PM
> *To:* nysbirds-L@cornell.edu
> *Subject:* [nysbirds-l] Henslows Sparrow redux: Shawangunk Grasslands,
> NWR (Ulster County)
>
>
>
> Hi All,
>
> A few weeks ago, I posted a query to the list, noting that this year's
> Henslow's Sparrow at Shawangunk is singing a different song compared to the
> single song recorded by multiple observers last year, and wondering if that
> was enough of an indication that this year's bird is a different
> individual. That post did not really elicit much interest, based on the
> little feedback I received.
>
>
>
> Since then, I wrote to a few people directly, including Nathan Pieplow,
> whose book, "Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds of Eastern North
> America", was published last year. Am including my direct query to him.
> Nathan agrees that this year's bird is almost certainly a different
> individual, and he gave me permission to post his reply, which you will see
> below.
>
>
>
> For those interested, the screen shot of the spectrograms that I sent to
> him is now online on my website, in this gallery. You can see from the
> screen shot that the first four spectrograms show a "Mi-Re-Do" sequence of
> notes, and they are all from this year's bird. The remaining spectrograms
> show a "Mi-Do-Re" type sequence of notes. Both three syllable "songs", just
> a different sequence of sounds.
>
>
>
> https://www.birdsiviews.com/Henslows-Sparrow-Shawangunk-Grasslands/
>
>
>
> If you want to see and play back the entire eBird collection of
> spectrograms and audio files for both Shawangunk birds, the link is here:
>
>
>
> https://ebird.org/media/catalog?taxonCode=henspa&;
> mediaType=a®ion=Ulster,%20New%20York,%20United%
> 20States%20(US)®ionCode=US-NY-111&q=Henslow%27s%
> 20Sparrow%20-%20Ammodramus%20henslowii
>
>
>
> Nathan's reply and my query to him follow here.
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> Karen,
>
>
>
> Thanks for the email! I'm very glad you like my book. We need to get more
> people using it!
>
>
>
> I'm about as certain as I can be that the 2018 bird is a different
> individual than the 2017 bird. Here's why:
>
> · Henslow's is a poorly studied species. But in the research for my
> book, I never found a documented case of an individual Henslow's switching
> songtypes on a recording.
>
> · You've got a pretty good sample size of recordings here. I went
> through all the 2018 recordings and every rendition is identical. I didn't
> go through all the 2017 recordings but in my sample, they were all
> identical to each other and different from the 2018 bird.
>
> · All the 2017 and 2018 recordings in your sample are stereotyped, not
> plastic. This basically ensures the recordings come from adult birds. It
> has been shown in many passerine species that once birds are adults, they
> cannot learn new songs. A few birds have been shown to
