Winter
& Pacific Wren Calls: What to Listen For
1. Winter Wren’s call is much clearer and sounds
lower-pitched than that of Pacific
Wren-Note in the spectrograms although each
call note covers roughly the same range of frequencies the the loudest part (i.e. the darkest on
the spectrogram) is around 6-7kHz for the Pacific Wren; it is about 3-4kHz for Winter Wren accounting for
the perceived difference in pitch.
Comparison of less familiar calls with more familiar
calls is an excellent technique to use in identifying calls. In the case of these wrens the Winter Wren has
the same sound quality as a Song Sparrow call and that of Pacific Wren is often compared with a call
of Wilson’s Warbler, but since Wilson’s warbler is not very common in the Delaware Valley, I would tend
to say it sounds closer to a Dark-eyed Junco (but not as smacking) call than a song sparrow’s call.
This is a perfect example of why learning the calls of common birds can be so useful in sound
identification in general.
2. The series of
rhythmic notes of Pacific Wren are delivered much faster than those of Winter Wren-Note in the spectrograms the triplet in Pacific Wren is delivered in 0.2 seconds (you can just barely hear the breaks between
the notes) while the triplets in Winter Wren, although variable, in this example take three times (0.6
seconds) as long to be delivered and it is easy to distinguish each note of the triplet.
Calls
are short, usually doubled or tripled notes.