CURWOOD: Our beloved songbirds are getting ready to make their way south again for the winter. As Birdnote’s Mary McCann tells us, this is actually an important time of year for young birds to learn the songs that will help them survive and ultimately find a mate next spring.

Few songbirds are more familiar across North America than the Chipping Sparrow.

Petite and rufous-capped, Chipping Sparrows breed over much of the continent. They winter in the southern U.S. and Central America. Yet familiar as the birds may seem, scientists are still unlocking their secrets. Recent research shows that when baby male Chipping Sparrows beg for food, their first begging calls already show a connection with the songs they will develop.

Soon, the young males’ begging calls mix into what is known as “subsong,” a sort of infant babbling for young male birds. And, very quickly, subsong begins to transition to imitations of adult songs. By the time a young male Chipping Sparrow migrates south in early October, it has developed five to seven “precursor songs” – works in progress, but closer to adult songs. Next spring, when the young male returns north for its first breeding season, it will settle in near an older male. Soon it drops all but one of the precursor songs – the one most like the older male’s song – and in a few days, nearly matches its neighbor note for note.

Then for the real test of its new song – attracting its first mate.

I’m Mary McCann.

Chipping Sparrow begging call provided by Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics, Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, all rights reserved.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2012 Tune In to Nature.org October 2018 Narrator: Mary McCann

CURWOOD: For photos of the chipping sparrow migrate on over to our website L-O-E dot org.