Birdsong and a Summer of Research at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem StudiesJosh Rieskamp, Centre College, Class of 2015

Introduction to Veery Song

Why Does the Songbird Sing?1. To attract mates2. To defend territories

Veery Song Modification: Repetition/Addition

Veery Song Modification: Translocation

Results and Implications

What is a Song Repertoire?There is incredible diversity in bird song, both between species and between individuals of the same species. Scientists study this diversity by cataloguing the song repertoires of bird species, which is the entire range of distinct song types that members of the species are known to use. The song repertoire of an individual bird includes only those songs within the larger species repertoire that the individual bird knows and uses.

“Reading” a Veery Song

Research Questions

Method

Some Highlights of the REU Program:

The Plant Science Building Pete Seeger’s sloop Clearwater Field Day with elementary students Bacon Flats

Phrase 1: Introductory

Note

Phrase 2: Repeated High

Frequency Notes

Phrase 3: Repeated Low Frequency Notes

and “Trill”

How many song types do veeries use?

How many notes make up their songs?

How do songs vary within repertoires?

How do songs vary among repertoires?

Dr. Belinsky (my mentor) recorded over 1752 songs from veeries living on the Cary Institute property during the summer of 2009. I created sonograms of every song using Cornell University’s RavenPro software. For each song, I recorded the song type, number of notes in each song, and temporal and frequency measurements.

Individual veery repertoires ranged from 1 to 3 song types, and most individuals used only a single song type. However, veeries used a lot of modified variations of their single song type. These modifications fell under four main categories including additions/repetitions, deletions, translocations, and frequency shifts. Compared to other bird species, veery song is complex and the differences between song types are subtle.

The “typical” version of the song typeA modified version of the same song type in which an

additional note is placed in Phrase 2 as well as an additional note in Phrase 3.

The “typical” version of the song type A modified version of the same song type in which the final Phrase 3 note of the “typical” version is shifted to a

higher frequency and placed as the second note in Phrase 2.