Oriole Story (in sound)

I've been reading Don Kroodsma's wonderful new book, Singing through the Seasons. He, like most birdsong experts, is a great proponent of birdsong visualizations. So I've tried here to tell a story, Kroodsma-style, using Raven Lite sonograms captured to video and uploaded to YouTube.

I've seen a lot of competition between male Baltimore orioles in the last week featuring much chasing. This was an interesting sequence I recorded at the Charles River Peninsula on Friday.

Let me set the scene. Two males race across the trail, land in some brush right in front of me. I can't see them but I turn the recorder on.

Sonogram 1.
At this point, the orioles are making short 2-3 repetition chatter sounds. Note: there are a number of other birds making noises. I've tried to label them so you can recognize their songs and filter them out (they include warbling vireos, yellow warblers, and black-capped chickadees).



Sonogram 2.
Now, in addition to the short chatter sounds, I'm hearing peeps (is this a father-son exchange?), more extended scolding, and assorted, almost whispered, whistling. I'm imagining this is as dialogue.



Sonogram 3.
Finally, there is a victor. The younger oriole flies off, and the elder (the same guy I heard last year), perches at the edge of the brush. He gives an extended scold and then triumphantly lets loose with his song.



(Note: this was a fun, but somewhat time-consuming exercise. There is a little time-lag in the YouTube videos which means the sonogram and the audio don't line up perfectly. You should hear the sounds right as the sonogram moves past the left edge of the screen. Putting annotations in a side-scrolling video is also a bit challenging.)