[Maine-birds] Ovenbird evening aerial flight song/display

Hi folks,

I was in the yard this evening and heard on of our neighborhood ovenbirds give an aerial flight song above the forest canopy this evening at 8:15.  What a pleasant sound!

The flight songs start with a few rapid pic notes followed by a bunch of 'odd sharp notes' with a few 'teacher. teacher teacher's' mixed in the sequence (the 'teacher's' do not seem to increase in intensity or loudness).  The 'teacher' or 'tea-cher' notes are given in a fairly rapid sequence but the amplitude does not increase much and is faster than their regular 'teacher. teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher ' sequence with the amplitude increasing. 

The flight songs are given in the evening (dusk) usually while the bird flies above the canopy.  Other ovenbird vocalizations, often called 'flight songs',  may sound 'similar' but  are given at other times of the day and are typically given from a perch (not a true flight song as pointed out in the on-line Birds of North America (http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/088/articles/sounds).  The on-line description is more detailed than my description. 

They may not give flight songs every night during the nesting season and, on any given night (weather permitting), are often given several times over a 20-30 minute interval.  I have heard them giving flight songs here in Augusta at least through mid-July (I have rarely seen due to closed canopies). 

I have watched northern waterthrushes give aerial flight songs in spring before leaf-out in the Orono-Stillwater area.  Their aerial flights extended 100-150 meters over trees along the College Ave. extension that runs through the University of Maine's experimental forest in Stillwater.  This was during the mid 1970s when waterthrushes were quite common along the Penobscot River bottomland forests.

The ovenbird flight songs are well-timed with the peak hum of mosquitoes.

Happy listening.

Norm

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Norman Famous, Wetlands and Wildlife Ecologist

513 Eight Rod Road

Augusta, ME 04330

(207) 623 6072

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