Skip to content
Menu
Carpinteria Birdwatchers
  • About
  • Meetings
Carpinteria Birdwatchers

Female* Purple Finch singing?

May 5, 2021May 23, 2021 by John Callender

I’m not sure why, but this year there have been more Purple Finches in our yard. One thing I’ve noticed is how much the female* Purple Finches vocalize. I learned growing up that male birds sing and females don’t, but it turns out that’s wrong. It is often that way for temperate-zone species, apparently, but in other parts of the world female song is much more common. And even around here it happens more than you’d think.

Anyway, I noticed this female* Purple Finch singing in our backyard today and recorded a brief video:

More about this observation, including photos and a longer audio recording, is in my eBird list. More about the topic of female birdsong is in this episode of the ABA podcast: The Secrets of Female Bird Song with Lauryn Benedict. More about Dr. Benedict’s work, and about female birdsong in general, can be found at femalebirdsong.org.

*Or maybe not female. In Nathan Pieplow’s excellent Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds of Western North America he observes that although female birdsong is regularly reported for this species, most of these are likely first-year males, which are visually very similar to females. So now I’m inclined to think that’s what this bird was: a first-year male. Still very cool!🙂

Pages

  • About
  • Meetings
  • The Carpinteria Christmas Bird Count
  • The Carpinteria Little Big Day
  • The Carpinteria Snowy Plovers

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
©2023 Carpinteria Birdwatchers | Powered by WordPress and Superb Themes!