Henslow’s Sparrow | The Music of Nature

Soundscapes from tallgrass prairie are alive with sound. The problem is finding good places to record. Many prairie refuges are small wildlife management areas surrounded on all sides by busy roads, offering considerable frustration to the nature recordist. For this reason, I home-in on larger tracts, such as the 1360-acre Tabervile Prairie Conservation Area in west-central Missouri (it is one of the state’s largest remaining tallgrass prairies).

The following soundscape, which I recorded near a hedgerow at the edge of the preserve, is chock-full of bird song. The species that stands out the most is Henslow’s Sparrow—its high-pitched insect-like tslick! can be heard clearly against a backdrop that includes the songs of Field Sparrow, Dickcissel, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Northern Cardinal. Listen also for the occasional chuckles of a Southern Leopard Frog.

Dawn chorus featuring songs of Henslow’s Sparrow and many other species. 5 am, 12 May 2005, Taberville Prairie Conservation Area in west-central Missouri. Recorded by Lang Elliott.

All prairie soundscapes are music to my ears. The emotions they evoke are complicated. On the one hand, I appreciate the extraordinary array of sounds purely from the standpoint of their artistic merit. On the other hand, I am struck by how few tallgrass prairie patches survive, and I find myself longing for the days when they, and their corresponding soundscapes, stretched for miles in all directions.

This is a busy soundscape, and some may find it a little dense. Others may be bothered by the closest Henslow’s Sparrow, or else the nearby cardinal when it comes in; both of these may be a little loud (please let me know if you have this response; I can always lower the offenders). But all in all, I am thrilled by this catch. The astounding variety of birds singing excitedly at the break of dawn conveys how full of life the prairie can be, and invokes a sense of joy and appreciation for this natural wonder.

NOTE: You may be surprised to hear my voiced introduction in the recording. This is an experiment concerning how to “brand” these soundscape productions so as to develop name recognition and popularize “musicofnature.com.” This is especially helpful if I post these soundscapes in other places, such as on Facebook, where the source could easily be lost or ignored. Let me know what you think about this. Can you endure listening each time to a 30 second introduction by yours truly? As the recording loads, you can avoid listening to me by clicking on the sonogram after the section with my voice—the recording will immediately jump to that position.

> HD version.

I met my first Henslow’s Sparrow while exploring a hilltop meadow. I kept hearing what I first thought was a cricket chirp—an extremely high-pitched tsi-de-lick coming from thick grass in front of me. I searched in vain for the source, which seemed to move each time I approached. Then, just as I was ready to give up, a small mouselike bird flitted to the top of a weed stalk, threw up its head, and sang its tiny squeak of a song before dropping back into the grass. You call that a bird song?

The Henslow’s Sparrow is an inconspicuous little brown bird that breeds in grassy meadows in the Midwest and portions of the East (see range map). It was named by John James Audubon in honor of John Stevens Henslow, a British professor of botany who subscribed to Audubon’s early works. Surprisingly, Dr. Henslow never visited North American and never heard the sparrow’s simple song.

Roger Tory Peterson described the song as “one of the poorest vocal efforts of any bird.” Personally, I think it’s a grand effort and applaud the bird for practicing the law of parsimony—the judicious exercise of economy and frugality. The humble Henslow’s Sparrow accomplishes his goal with the least amount of fuss. By singing less, he impresses me more! Of course, one should realize that my interpretation is clouded by the limitations of human hearing. If I slow a song down using my computer, this “poor excuse” for a song transforms into a delightful musical cascade:

Henslow’s Sparrow songs. The first one is at normal speed, the second at about 1/4 speed, and the third at about 1/6 speed.

NOTE: The above text is excerpted from The Songs of Wild Birds, a book-and-CD by Lang Elliott, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

DAWN CHORUS: Below is a dawn chorus soundscape where you can hear the songs of a Henslow’s Sparrow rising above all the other bird songs. Birds sounding off in the background include American Crow, Wood Thrush (in a nearby wooded area), Grasshopper Sparrow, Indigo Bunting, Prairie Warbler, and Common Yellowthroat. This soundscape was recorded at the same location that we gathered the video footage (see below for map).

Dawn chorus featuring Henslow’s Sparrow. 5 June 2009. Tri-Valley Wilderness Area north of Zanesville Ohio. Recorded by Lang Elliott.

ABOUT THE VIDEO: The footage for our featured video was gathered in the Tri-Valley Wilderness Area, a reclaimed surface-mined area to the north of Zanesville, Ohio. Bob McGuire and I visited the area in early June of 2009 and had good success with finding and videotaping birds.

Tri-Valley Wilderness Area

Tallgrass Symphony

Henslow’s Sparrow Portrait