Birding Gurus: Was that really a Carolina Wren?

June 22, 2008 5:56 PM

A wren or not a wren, that is the question....

Hi MetaBirders! I'm trying to determine if a bird I heard today, whose song matches the mp3 for the Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) found on this page, was a Carolina wren (or not). All the other sound recordings I can find for this wren online don't sound anything like the Patuxent clip. Is the Patuxent recording actually a Caroline wren? Or is it another bird? (It's just weird that I can't find another Carolina wren that sounds similar to the Patuxent one.)

posted by longdaysjourney to pets & animals (8 comments total)

Weirdly, I can't get that sound clip to play for me. Does it sound anything like the one on Cornell's site?
posted by rtha at 6:13 PM on June 22, 2008

Hit post not preview...sorry - the Cornell Lab or Ornithology is a treasure trove of facts and figures and sound clips.
posted by rtha at 6:14 PM on June 22, 2008

No, it doesn't! And I've been to 4-5 different bird ID sites trying to find a match for the Patuxent clip. All the other sites have wrens that sound basically the same. But that Patuxent clip is so different it has me wondering if that's truly a Carolina wren.

But maybe it is the same and I'm just not hearing the similarities. :(
posted by longdaysjourney at 6:19 PM on June 22, 2008

Carolna Wrens have a really big repertoire of songs and calls.

Also, yes, the recording on that site is the most common of the songs, and doesn't sound much different from others I'm hearing. The Carolina Wren is really loud, though, and that recording is not. Here's another version.

Where were you (city, state) when you heard it?
posted by Stewriffic at 6:31 PM on June 22, 2008

BTW, I can't get the Cornell recordings to work for me. The song I linked to above, though, and the one you linked to are different examples of the Carolina Wren's typical song. Do you hear them as the same? Disregard what I'm hearing as a pitch difference.
posted by Stewriffic at 6:34 PM on June 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

I was hoping Stewriffic would see this, since she is much better at IDing passerines - and IDing by ear - than I am.
posted by rtha at 6:49 PM on June 22, 2008

:-) we complement one another well, rtha.
posted by Stewriffic at 7:06 PM on June 22, 2008

That's it Stewriffic! Same song, same wren. (I was in Northern Virginia, in Alexandria. And yes, that wren was singing it's heart out. Such a loud song from such a small body!) Thanks for the confirmation!
posted by longdaysjourney at 7:32 PM on June 22, 2008