Spotted Towhee song changing? (1 Viewer)

[tenex]

At least around here (Colorado Front Range) the songs of Towhees seem to have changed in the last year or so. Previously they nearly always had the form "chirp chirp chirp trill", but now just two chirps have become more common, sometimes even with the first at a higher pitch than the second, and occasionally other variants too. Is anything known about this?

 

[Brad Hacker]

Check out the Pieplow Book information for Spotted and Eastern Towhee, which indicates clinal and hybrid song variation.

 

[tenex]

Check out the Pieplow Book information for Spotted and Eastern Towhee, which indicates clinal and hybrid song variation.

If you have that book, perhaps you could simply answer my question in a sentence or two, esp. regarding recent changes?

 

[Brad Hacker]

Well, it doesn't say anything too specific, but notes that "SpTo at eastern end of range sounds more like EaTo", "Highly variable", and "(SpTo) hybrids with EaTo sing like either parent."
Pieplow is a great book, though, well worth having.
Also note that the Merlin call for SpTo from S Dakota sounds like what you describe.
In So Calif the SpTo have a call they make only during breeding season AFAIK.
Sorry I can't be more helpful.

 

[tenex]

Thanks! The S.Dakota SpTo call on Merlin has two chirps of the same pitch, which we've also heard here, while the high/low call we've just begun hearing is indeed that of EaTo! We'll take a closer look at the birds making it, but the last Ebird report of EaTo in this county was 2021, and the last hybrid 2013, so it still seems a bit of a mystery.

 

[Andy Adcock]

At least around here (Colorado Front Range) the songs of Towhees seem to have changed in the last year or so. Previously they nearly always had the form "chirp chirp chirp trill", but now just two chirps have become more common, sometimes even with the first at a higher pitch than the second, and occasionally other variants too. Is anything known about this?

Put it down to the lazy, youngsters of today.

 

[tenex]

OK, just visually confirmed a Spotted Towhee singing like an Eastern. Perhaps these birds have been over in Nebraska and picked up bad habits?
The odd thing is that I've lived here for years and never heard this before... why now?