Summer Tanager observations

[Fran Toler]

This summer I have been more attuned to Summer Tanagers and have been pleased to find several breeding locations on my regular walks. I think I have often overlooked them in the past. I have two questions:

1) Listening in the evening for their “Pitik!” Call is a great way to figure out where they are. However 90% of the calling I have heard around here is a 3-beat “Pi-ti-tik!”  I have looked through Cornell Birds of the world and other sources trying to figure out if this is common, regional, super specific to this area, or what. Every source supports the two syllable call note. 

2) Does anyone have a clever way to distinguish the songs of Summer vs Scarlet Tanager? They sound slightly different to me, but I can’t sort them out in the field. One place I walk has both and I like to imagine I can tell the difference but I think I am guessing. 

Fran Toler

[Marcia Watson]

Fran,

For Summer Tanager, Sibley says “Call a descending series of hard, unmusical notes pituk to pikitukituk; also a more rapid, descending rattle kdddd- rrrddi. Flight call a soft, wheezy veedrr or verree.”

The one that sounds like “pikitukukituk” is the one that usually gets my attention here in PG County. 

As for the song, to me the voice of Scarlet is much more hoarse and robust.   Also they often throw in an emphatic “chip-burr” call note. 

To me the Summer’s song is more clear and less hoarse, but some of the notes in the Summer’s song sound like the bird is singing two notes at once, reminiscent of a thrush. 

Marcia

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Marcia Watson

Patuxent Bird Club

A Chapter of the Maryland Ornithological Society

https://patuxentbirdclub.org/

Bowie, Maryland

marsh...@comcast.net

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[James Wilson]

Summer Tanagers breed along a section of John Brown Road in Queen Anne's County.  They were in two different locations this spring and summer.  I walk that section of road nearly every day  so I have become familiar with their song and calls.

For the song:  the birds I hear usually have the call note mixed in with their song.

For the call: I almost always hear the 3 note call.  I assigned the words "pick-e-tuck."  For some reason this year, this phrase started to work better:  three-p-Oh.  Yes, the Star Wars robot.  If you ever teach kids about a Scarlet Tanager, teach them this.  It is much easier to remember than pick-e-tuck.

As always, whatever works best for you!

Jim Wilson

Queenstown

[Jim Felley]

I agree with Marcia.  The Scarlet Tanager sounds more hoarse to me.  And I agree with both Jim and Marcia:  The call notes of the two birds are different (my interpretation is Scarlet:  Chip-burr, Summer:  Pit-ee-tuck).  Singing birds tend to include their distinctive calls in their songs, so if you listen long enough, you should hear the definitive sounds.

Jim

Jim Felley

Gaithersburg MD

[JAMES SPEICHER]

Referencing the recent article concerning the "drift" in the ending of the WTSP song, it was interesting to hear these Canadian researchers characterize the song as, "Oh Sweet Canada, Canada, Canada," b4 the reduction in syllables at the end. Of course we were all taught to hear the song as "Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody."

I think the lessons are that

1. It's hard to unlearn training

2. Even without, or maybe especially without training, we all hear differently.

I've never discovered the identity of the "Pit-Chew-It" bird I chanced upon recently, but someone else hearing it may have given a description that would have led to an ID.

Jim S

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