Worm-eating Warbler? (1 Viewer)

Here is a recording that I took yesterday. It sounds like a Worm-eating Warbler to me. We heard the song about 40 times. There are three songs in the recording at 5, 21, 52 seconds. Looking at it in RavenLite the frequency appears to be perfect.

Also we played a recording hoping to call it in right after this bird called and it matched exactly.

I was not able to a get a look except when it flew from on tree to another. It was the right size and color but that was all I could tell from my 2 second flight look. It flew directly to the other tree with no bouncy flight.

The audio is as recorded except I silenced out a couple of places due to voices.

Let me know what you guys think.

Hi,

I can only really hear the song at 5 seconds, but certainly sounds like worm eating. My only qualification is that I've been impressed recently with how much Chipping Sparrows can sometimes give the light insect like trill I associate with worm eating. So if the habitat was wrong for worm eating (they like forested hillsides), I might have some hesitation--but only slight.

Best,
Jim

J. Moore said:

Hi,

I can only really hear the song at 5 seconds, but certainly sounds like worm eating. My only qualification is that I've been impressed recently with how much Chipping Sparrows can sometimes give the light insect like trill I associate with worm eating. So if the habitat was wrong for worm eating (they like forested hillsides), I might have some hesitation--but only slight.

Best,
Jim

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Well, it probably isn't breeding habitat for Worm-eating but it is migration and in our area the few that have been seen over the years are usually not in good breeding habitat. I thought of Chipping Sparrow as well. We have many of them. In fact that is what I thought is was at first and I wouldn't really trust my ear to separate the two species. But when I look at Chipping Sparrow trills in RavenLite it shows the khz frequency as much lower the Worm-eating.

Anyway, I'm far from sure but I think it may possible to get a definitive id but then again it may not.

It sounds good for worm eating to me too.

I tend to confuse chippie and pine warblers, not worm-eating. Worm-eating is definitely higher pitched than chippies. Chippies also tend to have more widely separated chips than worm-eating.

Jeff hopkins said:

It sounds good for worm eating to me too.

I tend to confuse chippie and pine warblers, not worm-eating. Worm-eating is definitely higher pitched than chippies. Chippies also tend to have more widely separated chips than worm-eating.

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Good synposis of the differences in song among these similar sounding species. I also agree with it sounding like a Worm-eating Warbler for these very reasons.

Birdingcraft said:

Good synposis of the differences in song among these similar sounding species.

Click to expand...

Yes, it's a good synopsis of the differences between typical chippies songs and worm eating. But as I suggested above, I have come to suspect that sometimes chippies do a song much closer to worm eating.

Best,
Jim