[Tweeters] Wrentit question and Pacific Cty Bullock's Oriole

casey cunningham redpeelingbark at gmail.com
Mon Jan 30 08:29:54 PST 2023


The sound was coming from about 46.272340, -124.072316, if anyone wants to
look for its source. Heard around 4:30 while walking the top of the jetty
between where the asphalt ends (on the east) and some large boulders to
reduce access to the west.

Casey

Casey,
Having birded in California for decades, I'm quite familiar with Wrentits
and, to be honest, did not expect your recording to be like one. After
listening to it, I'm fairly convinced it actually is a Wrentit!
First, as you describe, it sounds like one, without a trill. Note that
females do not do the trill at the end. Here's an example of a "half-song",
probably a female. https://xeno-canto.org/351988
Second, the sonogram fits well, especially with recordings that are some
distance away. For example, compare it to the background bird on my
recording here -- https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/217940591 --especially
the note on my recording at about 5.4 seconds in. Your bird's sonogram also
has a hint of a flatish declining top, which some Wrentit sonograms show.
Some also show a double wave at the top, but yours (and mine above) show a
single wave. Finally, the call notes on your recording at 21 and 22.5
seconds show a harmonic at 6 kHz, exactly where the harmonic in the female
call note is. I cannot find a clean example of a female at the moment, but
there's one between 7 and 10 seconds here in the background behind the
trill of a male. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/212160 Ignoring the
trill, the sonogram here looks like yours.
Do you have a lat-long for this bird? It should be confirmed visually.
I've always thought Washington's first Wrentit would be upriver of Portland
(not counting Puget Island), but I think they can surprise us. After all
the fires in California, they've appeared (and established themselves) in
isolated riparian patches on the Sacramento Valley floor where they would
have had to cross two miles of nearly bare fields.
Really interesting stuff!
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