Tag: Phoenix

I was up yesterday a few hours before dawn for a morning of birding at the Tres Rios Wetlands in Phoenix. I arrived in time to hear the red-winged and yellow-headed blackbirds tuning up for their dawn chorus. At first the singers are all hidden in the cattails, but the males warm up their voices a bit in the half light. As the sun begins to rise they take up perches on the tops of the reeds, showing flashes of color, and the music builds. The females stay mostly concealed and don’t vocalize much, but for the males the singing is a momentous part of establishing territories and attracting female attention, though I think there might also be an element of ebullient self-declaration: I sing therefore I am. 

You can hear a sample of the dawn chorus here. The recording was made in Sonoma, California by Jack Hines. 

I was up yesterday a few hours before dawn for a morning of birding at the Tres Rios Wetlands in Phoenix. I arrived in time to hear the red-winged and yellow-headed blackbirds tuning up for their dawn chorus. At first the singers are all hidden in the cattails, but the males warm up their voices a bit in the half light. As the sun begins to rise they take up perches on the tops of the reeds, showing flashes of color, and the music builds. The females stay mostly concealed and don’t vocalize much, but for the males the singing is a momentous part of establishing territories and attracting female attention, though I think there might also be an element of ebullient self-declaration: I sing therefore I am. 

You can hear a sample of the dawn chorus here. The recording was made in Sonoma, California by Jack Hines.