Episode Number
121
Episode Show Notes / Description
Lincoln's sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii).
The pinstriped sparrow with a bubbly song.
Voice of the Wild is a podcast about wildlife and the wild sounds they make.
The following Cornell Lab | Macaulay Library recordings were used in this episode:
- Lincoln's sparrow song by Wil Hershberger (ML509647)
- Lincoln's sparrow call by Gerrit Vyn (ML509658)
- Chipping sparrow song by Randolph Little (ML509487)
Sources and more:
- Cornell’s All About Birds
- Audubon
- Cornell’s Birds of the World
- Audubon videoguide to 505 birds of North America
- Field guide to hotspots and birds in Illinois by Colin Dobson
- Peterson field guide to the birds (Fourth edition)
- Sibley Birds East
Transcript
This is Brodie with Illinois Extension and I’m here with a new “voice of the wild”
For a few weeks in spring and fall this elegantly pin-striped sparrow forages in low dense cover here and there across the US. They breed in the willow and alder thickets of the far north and mostly overwinter in the tangled scrubs and dry forests of the American Southwest and Mexico. Their plumage is a little like that of a song sparrow’s, but is set apart by a creamy background and slim delicate stripes running down the chest. This is the Lincoln’s sparrow.
While it is a gorgeous bird, the Lincoln’s sparrow is best known for its highly musical almost house-wren like song. Few would guess that the polyphonic, jumbling bubbly notes belongs to a new world sparrows – a family of birds far better known for their mechanical and raspy trills. In the Midwest you might hear this song during spring migration, during fall migration you’re far more likely to hear their assertive “Chep.” Instead. Here’s the Lincoln’s sparrow again.
Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for today’s sound. Learn more about voice of the wild at go.illinois.edu/VOW
For a few weeks in spring and fall this elegantly pin-striped sparrow forages in low dense cover here and there across the US. They breed in the willow and alder thickets of the far north and mostly overwinter in the tangled scrubs and dry forests of the American Southwest and Mexico. Their plumage is a little like that of a song sparrow’s, but is set apart by a creamy background and slim delicate stripes running down the chest. This is the Lincoln’s sparrow.
While it is a gorgeous bird, the Lincoln’s sparrow is best known for its highly musical almost house-wren like song. Few would guess that the polyphonic, jumbling bubbly notes belongs to a new world sparrows – a family of birds far better known for their mechanical and raspy trills. In the Midwest you might hear this song during spring migration, during fall migration you’re far more likely to hear their assertive “Chep.” Instead. Here’s the Lincoln’s sparrow again.
Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for today’s sound. Learn more about voice of the wild at go.illinois.edu/VOW