Timiskaming Birds Forum

Hi folks this subject line was prompted for me by something Johnathan wrote about being able to tell the difference between yellow billed and black billed cuckoos.  I have a list of species that I test my students on which includes over 100 species by sight and 50 species by call. Are there some species that I should include that would be helpful for discovering something at the marsh or in the area?? I could have then learn 2 different groups of birds by ear common birds that one would expect to encounter in our area and then birds of local interest. I already have them identify birds that are just fun phonetically like olive sided flycatcher. However I am always trying to the best I can for them so if any of you have suggestions on this I would be most interested. Gavin Murphy and other past terra students may have something to say about this. This could be a fun list to put together or to have a shorter list of birds that just have to be on the list.   I have discovered that the students have the technological savvy to track down the calls by all sorts of means so it would seem access to calls is not an impediment to mastery but rather time they spend learning.

Personnally, I like to know the song of birds that can likely be seen around here someday.  A couple of years ago, a hawk was hunting around our feeders.  I called it a sharp-shinned because it's the one normally seen around.  When it started screaming after the jays, I realized it was a Cooper's.  To find the right species it was important to know both song.

The same thing happened with Clay-colored sparrow.  I already knew its song before I found it for the first time.

So for that same reason, I learned the following song to make sure I don't miss a single bird if I can ear it someday:

Yellow-billed cuckoo, Willow flycatcher, Carolina wren, Wood trush, Golden-winged warbler, Yellow-throated vireo, Eastern towee, Henslow, Field, Nelson's, Grasshopper sparrows.

However, it's way more important to learn about our common species.  If somebody knows the common songs pretty well, he's gonna be able to know when he ears a song for the first time.  That's the first step to identify uncommon species:  to know our limit, and be comfortable with what we already know.  EG:  If your in an Alder flycatcher habitat and you ear a song, you have to already know the Alder flycatcher song pretty well to know that what you ear is different.

Can't wait for the spring!