Bird Lines

     The field guide book for birds of this region sits in a drawer close to the kitchen window.  Its page edges worn from frantic flipping when a new species is seen at the feeder. The book is filled with full color photographs of each bird and a description, along with their certain characteristics.  Mother would be proud, she loved to watch the birds.

     The author of the book uses words to help identify the songs of several birds.  Take the barred owl, for instance, it gives an eight hoot call that sounds like "who cooks for you, who cooks for you".
The northern flicker gives a loud "wacka-wacka" and the common yellowthroat says "witchity-witchity-witchity-witchity".

     I've never quite been able to wrap my ears around this concept, putting words into the bird songs.  I can identify several different birds by their song, but that is all it sounds like to me, bird tweets.

     There is a large tall hedge of evergreens that grows on the boundary of our property and the neighboring one.  It is a haven for many species of birds throughout the nesting season.  There are grackles, finches of all kinds, catbirds and brown thrashers who return each year.  There are also many cardinals and since they do not migrate, I can enjoy watching them all year.

     Cardinals are easy to identify.  The male's bright red color is hard to miss and they have a very distinctive song.  During the mating season, the male cardinal works his tail off (no pun intended) trying to impress his mate (sometimes there is no blurred line between the animal and human kingdom).  Many times I have seen a male cardinal bring a sunflower seed to his beloved, trying to ensure the survival of his species.  He also spends a lot of time singing to her along with letting the other cardinals know this is his territory.  

     I was sitting outside the other day, when this yearly ritual was beginning, listening to the cardinals sing their love songs when I heard it.  The words, "come here, come here".  I nearly fell out of my chair.  I listened again and sure enough, one young male cardinal had finessed his call into human English words.  I paid special attention to see if the others made the same call because I had never heard "it" in words before.  Although the call is similar, along with being familiar, the other males do not sound like this one lone bird.  It is easy to locate him in the neighborhood as the words, "come here, come here, come here" ring out from the treetops.

     I'm not sure how his pick-up line is working out for him.  I guess he just decided to skip the formalities and get straight to the point.  Must be a guy thing.