bird broadcasting

We have two Common Yellowthroat territories on opposite sides of the property. On one side, the male sings his 'weetchy-weetchy-weetch' non-stop as he works his way invisibly through the upper dense screen of a leafy grove of trees. On the other side, by the corner of the marsh, the male basically sings very little (a few times early in the morning and occasionally once or twice in the late afternoon). However, unlike his confrere, he pops right up into view -- generally from a low bush -- just as soon as I round the path by his corner. The difference, I'm quite certain, is that the arboreal singing Yellowthroat does not have a mate and the quiet bushmaster -- the one that pops up to survey what's going on in his neighborhood -- has a mate as well as a probable nest with eggs and chicks on the way.

In the same way, the Yellow Warbler that sings persistently from the treetops and the Brown Thrasher that turns up singing his thrasher tunes from the treetops are probably not mated either but both still in the hopes that their excellent singing skills will attract a female and put him on the road to perpetuating his singing genes. These birds are not normally treetop denizens but persistent singing from a high perch literally broadcasts the song over a wider area and increases the chances that the right ears might be listening.

Eric Salzman