Eastern Phoebe | The Music of Nature

For quite some time, I’ve had the idea to post “personal narratives” recorded in the field at various locations, especially right after I’ve snagged very nice recordings or videos. Below is a narrative I recorded on April 22, 2010 at Land Between the Lakes Kentucky, during a recording session at the Nature Station (Nature Center). Let me know what you think (leave comments below). When I head into the field in 2011, should I be posting lots of narratives like this one, which would give you, the reader/listener, a sense of my own experience while in the field?

Lang Elliott talking about sound recording on the morning of April 22, 2010, at the Nature Station in Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky

In the narrative, I mention a number of recordings made at the Nature Station. I’ve posted most of these separately, and here are the links:

Bluebird Dawn
Chipping Sparrow — Commonplace Bird
Cowbird Duet — GurgleSqueak and Chatter

In this post, I’ve decided to add one more recording to the pot—the fee-bee, fee-breetit songs of an Eastern Phoebe, recorded at the same location. Note that he roughly alternates the two song types, one (fee-bee) having a burry ending and the other (fee-breetit) ending with a brief jumble of notes:

I was wandering around a nature preserve in Frederick County, Maryland one evening in late March, several years ago, noticing that the Eastern Phoebes had recently returned from their winter foray south. I was recording bird sounds, there isn’t much song in late March. I found a male Eastern Phoebe chirping excitedly in a lower section of the preserve. I began to record all of the chirps and notes that he was uttering. As I followed him around I noticed that another phoebe was close by watching this displaying male. All of the sudden the male began to chirp rapidly from a perch over the trail. He flew into the air and delivered a wonderfully rich series of notes as he flew in an undulating circle. While calling, he completed two laps of his small circle and landed on the perch from which he originally launched. Once perched, he started singing rich versions of the typical Eastern Phoebe song, quietly at first, and crescendoing as he sang more phrases. Wow, I had just witnessed, and recorded, my first Eastern Phoebe flight song.

Little did I know that this behavior had not previously been recorded in print or on audio tape. Since this original exposure to the flight display and song, I have heard it numerous times, even in the fall. Most of the time the display is saved for the evening twilight portion of the day, starting shortly after the sunset. Once, shortly after sunrise in the fall, and after giving my rendition of a barred owl, a close Eastern Phoebe exploded into flight song right over the heads of an assembled crowd of appreciative birdwatchers. That was the only time that I have heard the display given outside of the evening twilight portion of the day.

So, here is my original recording (still my best to-date example) of the entire display of Eastern Phoebe flight song:

Personal Narrative

Eastern Phoebe Flight Song