41. Patience in listening to songs of a brown thrasher.
6. Song Learning Often Creates Complex Songs and Large Repertoires
Small to large repertoires
From page 94 in the book.
Patience in listening to songs of a brown thrasher. You can do it yourself! Pick one of those ten distinctive songs (maybe the chickadee imitation, given how easily it is recognized) and listen for that particular song in one of the thrasher recordings. Be patient! Realize that the most frequent imitations (loon and chipping sparrow) occurred just once every 18 minutes; the meadowlark song occurred only once in the three and a quarter hours (see "return times" in the book text)! As you listen, count the number of doublets that you hear. Expand your experience by listening to another of the thrasher recordings, or by listening for another of the ten species imitations in the same recording. Play with your numbers and do the math, as discussed in the book. Based on this brown thrasher experience, the possibilities are limitless for what your unaided ears can teach you about other species.