Sparrow Lovers Listen Up!

During our visit at the Canopy Lodge last month, Marco was fortunate to have an extended connection with a Black-striped Sparrow (Arremonops conirostris.) I convinced him that this fellow was worthy of a blog post all his own.

Sparrows are difficult to come by down here. Near our former home in California (U.S.A.), we had many species and big mixed flocks of them to sort through in the winter. Here, although we have a number of finches, grassquits, seedeaters, seed-finches, and brush-finches, the field guide lists only seven birds with the word "Sparrow" in their names. Two of those are accidental and one is casual. The Black-striped Sparrow is the only one we regularly see.

As is so often the case, Robert Ridgely's appreciation for the avifauna shines through in his species account of this sparrow: "Though not brightly colored, this neat dapper bird can be easily recognized by its black-striped gray head with contrasting olive back." (A Guide to the Birds of Panama by Ridgely & Gwynn)

Marco let the camera roll for an extended take and that is what we see here: one shot that allows us to delve into the simple vocalization and hear how it changes in time. With three notes, the Black-striped Sparrow varies the song and does morph into the phrase that sounds like a "bouncing ball."

The inspiration for this example comes from Music of Nature, a site chanced upon while surfing the internet. This is a nature-driven presentation from the real world, not a fast-cut hyper narrative to fill the minutes until the next titillating exploitation.

Enjoy the music for both eyes and ears: