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Description: |
xii, 482 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm + 1 audio disc (digital ; 4 3/4 in.) |
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Bibliography Note: |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 433-451) and indexes. |
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Contents Note: |
Contents: Beginnings. Hearing and seeing bird sounds ; The Bewick's wren ; The American robin ; Good listening, good questions, this book -- How songs develop. Learning songs: where, when, and from whom ; The white-crowned sparrow ; The song sparrow ; Borrowed songs: mimicry ; The northern mockingbird ; Songs that aren't learned ; Tyrant flycatchers: alder and willow flycatchers, eastern phoebe ; Why some species learn and others don't ; The three-wattled bellbird ; The sedge wren -- Dialects: how and why songs vary from place to place. The great marsh wren divide ; The black-capped chickadee ; The chestnut-sided warbler ; Travels with towhees, eastern and spotted ; The tufted titmouse -- Extremes of male songs. Songbirds without a song ; The blue jay ; Songbirds with especially complex songs ; The brown thrasher ; The sage thrasher ; The winter wren ; Songbirds with especially beautiful songs ; The Bachman's sparrow ; The wood thrush ; The hermit thrush ; Music to our ears ; Songs on the wing ; The American woodcock ; Tireless singers ; The whip-poor-will ; The red-eyed vireo -- The hour before the dawn. The eastern wood-pewee ; Chipping and Brewer's sparrows ; The eastern bluebird -- She also sings. The barred owl ; The Carolina wren ; The northern cardinal. |
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Summary, Etc. Note: |
Summary: "Listen to birds sing as you've never listened before, as the world-renowned birdsong expert Donald Kroodsma takes you on personal journeys of discovery and intrigue. Read stories of wrens and robins, thrushes and thrashers, warblers and whip-poor-wills, bluebirds and cardinals, and many more birds. Learn how each acquires its songs, how songs vary from bird to bird and place to place, how some birds' singing is especially beautiful or ceaseless or complex, how some do not sing at all, how the often quiet female has the last word, and why. Hear a baby wren and the author's own daughter babble as each learns its local dialect. Listen to the mockingbird by night and by day and count how many different songs he can sing. Marvel at the exquisite harmony in the duet of a wood thrush as he uses his two voice boxes to accompany himself. Feel the extraordinary energy in the songs just before sunrise as dawn's first light sweeps across this singing planet. Hear firsthand the unmistakable evidence that there are not one but two species of marsh wrens and two species of winter wrens in North America. Learn not only to hear but to see birds sing in the form of sonagrams, as these visual images dance across the pages while you listen to the accompanying CD. Using your trained ears and eyes, you can begin your own journeys of discovery. Listen anew to birds in your backyard and beyond, exploring the singing minds of birds as they tell all that they know. Join Kroodsma not only in identifying but in identifying with singing birds, connecting with nature's musicians in a whole new way." -- Provided by publisher |
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General Note: |
Accompanying CD contains field recordings keyed to sonograms in the text. |
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Index - Genre/Form: |
Accompanying disc: Birdsongs. |