Characteristics of Alarm Calls in Birds

Video Transcript

Hello. Welcome to Expert Village. My name is Wayne Petersen and I'm the director of the Important Bird Areas Program for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Today, we're here at the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield. And, we're going to be talking about birding by ear. In addition to song, as we noted previously, there are shorter call notes that are given by various species of birds under different circumstances. The American Robin is certainly a familiar bird throughout much of North America. And, very often, it's possible to hear the short alarm calls of this species. Oftentimes given if there's danger. Sometimes if they happen to find a roosting Screech Owl or some other natural predator, they'll be inclined to scold and there'll be a lot of commotion. Very often, these are the things birders can use as a way to locate some of these less common or harder to see predators like owls, for example. Sometimes, the presence of a snake on the ground will cause Robins to give these sharp alarm calls. But, the alarm calls are just one of a series of sort of shorter vocalizations that many birds use under different circumstances. But, the, the Robin's alarm call is one that if we see the bird giving the call, it's often accompanied by wing flicking, and the tail is often jetted up and down with each expletive that the bird gives. Oftentimes, the feathers of the crown are elevated slightly. All indicating some degree of agitation.

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