Re: [cobirds] Intriguing Empid, Rocky Mountain National Park, Larimer County

Thanks to Paul Hurtado and to Nathan Pieplow for their contributions. Not sure I agree that this bird's vocalizations are "typical" (per discussion at Xeno-Canto) for Dusky Flycatcher. I randomly grabbed this Chaffee County Dusky Flycatcher recording from Xeno-Canto:

http://www.xeno-canto.org/110022

That bird's "wit" call rises from 2.5 kHz to 5.5 kHz, and it sounds about "right" (more on that below) to my ears for Dusky Flycatcher. The "wit" call of the bird in Rocky Mountain National Park rises from 3 kHz to 6 kHz. In human musical terms, that's comparable to going from a middle C to the E above middle C; or, if you want a direct comparison, it takes you from E'''' to G''''.

In the following recording, the first six notes are of the "wit" call of the bird from Rocky Mountain National Park:

http://www.xeno-canto.org/181520

I'm not saying that the bird in Rocky Mountain National Park isn't a Dusky Flycatcher (and as Nathan says, the bird seems upset, which might well affect the bird's "wit" note). But I'm interested in how different it sounds, to my ears, from the Chaffee County bird. Perception of pitch varies greatly from human to human, from culture to culture, and from musical tradition to musical tradition. To some humans, there's a big difference between C and C-sharp, let alone between C and E. To other humans, such qualities as timbre and intonation are more distinctive.

All of which goes to show: Birders' fallible ears and suggestible brains are no substitute for a sound spectrogram!

I'm curious: Do y'all hear differences between the "wit" calls of the Chaffee County and Rocky Mountain National Park birds?

For sure, this has all been an interesting learning experience for me.

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado

On Tuesday, June 17, 2014 12:24:37 PM UTC-6, Nathan Pieplow wrote:

As Paul deduced, Ted's intriguing Empid is a Dusky Flycatcher -- one that's quite upset.  Reasons why it's a Dusky at http://www.xeno-canto.org/forum/topic/9362.

Thanks to Ted for a great recording, and to Paul for a good analysis.

Nathan Pieplow
Boulder

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