Carolina wren
Chapter 3: Why and How Birds Sing
Subchapter: Singing in the brain
From page 35 in the book.
Photo by Brian E. Small
♫109. Eight male songs, just one example of each, excerpted from a longer sequence in which each of the songs was repeated many times; these eight songs represent perhaps a quarter of the songs he knows. A commonly used mnemonic for the song is tea-kettle tea-kettle tea-kettle, or lib-er-ty, lib-er-ty, lib-er-ty. October 16, 2003. Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Naples, Florida. (0:36)
♫110. If the female Carolina wren were to learn her song and duet with her mate, as do many of this wren's tropical relatives, the typical tea-kettle song might be bisected, with one bird singing perhaps the tea, the other the kettle, as I've simulated in this selection. (Heard best with stereo headphones.) (0:14)