It’s rainy, windy, and cool here on April 26 at Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky. So I’ve been holed-up at the local public library, busying myself with editing and posting videos and sound recordings.
I”ve just pulled together some nice clips of a Prairie Warbler that I gathered a few days ago. This male’s buzzy, up-slurred song has a very fast pulse rate. He was quite cooperative, allowing me to get some terrific views:
Prairie Warblers are common over much of the East, preferring to breed in shrubby, overgrown fields and similar areas. The most familiar song pattern is a series of buzzy notes that rise in pitch from beginning to end. There is a lot of variation—sometimes the buzzes within a song are given slow enough to count and at other times (such as with the individual in the video) they are delivered too rapidly to discern.
Males may also sing complex songs composed of two parts. In the following example, which I recorded at Land Between the Lakes during my first visit in 1988 (holy smoke, that was a long time ago), the song begins with a series of clear musical notes that transform into higher buzzy notes at the end:
Songs of a Prairie Warbler – recorded 17 May 1988 by Lang Elliott at Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky
