Mechanical Sounds Produced By 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 songs and call notes, which are vocal renditions, various bird species also make mechanical sounds. Sounds that actually don't involve any kind of physical vocalization. The drumming of a Woodpecker on a hollow snag, for example, would be a good example of this type of thing. But, there are others. For instance, various birds, especially shore birds, often give displays in the air where the sound passing through various parts of either their wings or their tails can produce peculiar sounds. The American Woodcock, for example, is a bird that when it takes off it has this sort of soft twittering sound which is actually made by air passing through the outer flight feathers. Similarly, the Wilson Snipe, when it's displaying, spreads its tail in flight and basically does a brief free fall which creates this very peculiar winnowing sound. Some of the game birds, some of the chicken like birds, will often display, and they'll tap their feet on the ground in addition to making various gestures with their wings that are interesting in this regard. So, there are lots of sounds other than strict vocalizations that can be used for some of the same functions that we find in terms of true songs and calls.

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