Re: [cobirds] Blue jay fools Merlin/ GrayCatbird imitating Least Flycatcher

And I was recently birding in the foothills where I watched a Red-tailed hawk flyover calling repeatedly. Merlin ID'd it as a Steller's Jay! Is that the opposite of mimicry?

Cheers,

Chip Clouse

Lakewood

On Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 7:46 PM Ajit Antony <aiantony521@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Elena and everyone else.

Last year when I lived in New York and was involved in the 3rd (every 20 year) NY State Breeding Bird Atlas, I was in an area where I had already heard 2 Least Flycatcher calling and had seen each of them. Further along the trail I heard a 3rd and in trying to see it realized and saw that it was a earby Gray Catbird perfectly imitating 'che-beck' call of a Least Flycatcher !

tinyurl.com/4dn2x5yy

Out of curiosity I put on the Sound ID section of Merlin, and not unexpectedly it identified it as the call of a Least Flycatcher.

I did not then think of it as a deficiency of Merlin, but marveled at the perfect ability of a mimid.

Ajit Antony

Central Park, Colorado

On Fri, Jun 23, 2023, 5:41 PM elena <elena@indra.com> wrote:

Merlin is a wonderful tool, but it's certainly not as good as experienced ears. I watched Merlin (and, I confess, myself at first) be fooled by a blue jay doing a dang good imitation of a Coopers Hawk. I thought the jays were doing a very good job but wanted to test Merlin, and, no surprise, the blue jay won.

Sent from my iPhone
Elena Holly Klaver
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I acknowledge that I live in the territory of Hinóno'éí (Arapaho), Cheyenne and Ute Nations, according to the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, and that Colorado's Front Range is home to many Native peoples. Reconozco que vivo en el territorio de las naciones Hinóno'éí (Arapaho), Cheyenne y Ute, según el Tratado de Fort Laramie en 1851, y que el estado de Colorado al esté de las Montañas Rocosas es territorio de muchos pueblos indígenas.

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