The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to BirdsongListen to birds sing as you’ve never listened before, as the world-renowned birdsong expert Donald Kroodsma takes you on personal journeys of discovery and intrigue. Read stories of wrens and robins, thrushes and thrashers, warblers and whip-poor-wills, bluebirds and cardinals, and many more bird. Learn how each acquires its songs, how songs vary from bird to bird and place to place, how some birds' singing is especially beautiful or ceaseless or complex, how some do not sing at all, how the often quiet female has the last word, and why. Hear a baby wren and the author’s own daughter babble as each learns its local dialect. Listen to the mockingbird by night and by day and count how many different songs he can sing. Marvel at the exquisite harmony in the duet of a wood thrush as he uses his two voice boxes to accompany himself. Feel the extraordinary energy in the songs just before sunrise as dawn’s first light sweeps across this singing planet. Hear firsthand the unmistakable evidence that there are not one but two species of marsh wrens and two species of winter wrens in North America. Learn not only to hear but to see birds sing in the form of sonagrams, as these visual images dance across the pages while you listen to the accompanying audio. Using your trained ears and eyes, you can begin your own journeys of discovery. Listen anew to birds in your backyard and beyond, exploring the singing minds of birds as they tell all that they know. Join Kroodsma not only in identifying but in identifying with singing birds, connecting with nature’s musicians in a whole new way. Please note: this ebook includes embedded audio files. You will only be able to access these files from a device that supports embedded audio. |
Contents
2 HOW SONGS DEVELOP
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How and Why Songs Vary from Place to Place | |
4 EXTREMES OF MALE SONG
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5 THE HOUR BEFORE THE DAWN | |
6 SHE ALSO SINGS | |
Back Matter | |
Back Flap | |
Back Cover | |
Spine | |
Other editions - View all
The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong Donald Kroodsma No preview available - 2007 |
The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to ..., Volume 1 Donald E. Kroodsma No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
adult American robin babies begin bellbird Bewick's wren birdsong bluebird brown thrasher buzzy cardinal caroled phrases Carolina wren chatter chestnut-sided warblers chew chew chew chickadee chipping sparrow con D. E. Kroodsma dawn dif different songs ears east eastern eastern wood-pewee female figure flourishes flycatchers followed four frequency headphones hear heard hey-sweetie high-pitched hisselly hour identical songs jay call learn their songs listen male sings marsh wrens match mate microphone mockingbird morning neighbors nest North America notes owls pair parabola pause pee-ah-wee peents perch perhaps pitch prelude repeated robin sage thrasher sang sec seconds sedge wrens sequence singer sonagrams song repertoires song sparrow songbirds songs a minute species successive songs sunrise switching tape recorder territory titmice titmouse towhee track trill vibrato vireo voice boxes warblers wee-ooo western birds whip-poor-will whistles white-crowned sparrows winter wren wit wit wit wood thrush woodcock young birds young male