65. Prairie flight songs.
7. When to Sing, and How
Songs and calls in flight
From page 135 in the book.
Prairie flight songs. Nesting side by side in the shortgrass prairie of the northern Great Plains, with not a song perch in sight, the McCown's longspur and lark bunting offer wonderful opportunities for exploring what flight songs are all about. Stake out a pair or two during the daytime, and then return well before sunrise. What patterns in the song flights can be documented through the first couple of hours of a morning's activity? Do these flight singers reveal any special passion during the dawn chorus when perched singers are at their most intense? How many flights? For what duration? How do flight songs compare with perched songs? The numbers you choose to collect will tell you much about the lives of these flight singers.