Pinyon jay
Chapter 6: Song Learning Often Creates Complex Songs and Large Repertoires
Subchapter: What? "Songbirds" with no song?
From page 105 in the book.
Photo by Robert Royse
♫451. Pinyon jay: Hungry young birds in a large flock, together with occasional calls of adults (e.g., at 0:01, 0:12, 0:29, 0:35, 0:48). June 15, 2008. Mt. Princeton, Colorado. (0:50)
♫452. California scrub-jay: An example of jay "song," similar to the rambling plastic song of young songbirds in non-corvid families (see p. 49 in the book). At 1:40, hear the "rattle call," thought to be given only by the female scrub-jay. In this kind of rambling subsong, however, with the bird perhaps experimenting with all its known sounds, it could also be a male. This bird was well-hidden in the bushes, and then seemed to vocalize only when the loudest wind gusts or passing vehicle would best conceal the vocal effort, as if the bird had no desire to be heard. Although the recording could have been edited to remove some of the wind and vehicle noise, that would have destroyed the true conditions under which the jay had its say. September 3, 2018. Eugene, Oregon. (1:50) Recorded by Mieko Aoki.