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Archived Postings

June 26, 2006 – July 2, 2006

June 26 to July 2, 2006 It was a very patriotic Canada Day this year. It did not involve fireworks or crowds of people madly waving the Maple Leaf. It involved birds. There were two Canada Warbler nests found that were still incubating eggs. We monitor the nests daily to see when they would hatch. After ten days of monitoring, the first nest finally hatched on Canada Day. It was good timing for four new Canada warblers to enter the world. We also colour mark the adult Canada warblers to help track territories. Each individual captured is fitted with a unique sequence of bands consisting of the regular aluminum band and two coloured bands. Before we discovered that the nest hatched, we captured an adult Canada warbler and put the colour markers on it. As it is just so happened, according to the colour band schedule, this adult was fitted with red and white markers. It was fitting to have Canada’s national colours placed on a Canada warbler on Canada Day. Are ravens considered songbirds? An interesting question I was asked some time ago. Songbirds are defined simply as “a bird that utters a succession of musical tones.” This does not exactly fit the array of crackling noises that ravens make. There is more to the definition. Technically, songbirds are considered the group of passerines in the suborder Oscines that have highly developed vocal organs. Passerines are the perching birds (in the order Passeriformes). A bird is classed as a passerine by the arrangement of the toes on the feet. The four toes join the foot at the same level, with three facing forward and one backward. Essentially, a songbird is not only described by the noise it makes, but by its feet. Ravens are passerines; they do have this toe arrangement. The taxonomical breakdown of the different families of birds also defines a songbird. Passerines are split into two suborders based on their vocal structures: Oscines and Subocines. Oscines are considered the “songbirds,” they have the more developed vocal structures. Of the 18 families of passerines in North America, only one is in the suborder Subocines. Surprisingly, it is the family Tyrannidae (flycatchers, phoebes, and kingbirds) and not the family Corvidae (magpies, crows, jays, and ravens). So yes, ravens are songbirds. Here is another way to look at it. All humans have the same vocal structure, but can be classed into two groups: those who are gifted with wonderful singing voices and those who like to sing but shouldn’t, especially in front of others. Whether the noises coming from those people who can’t sing is truly considered singing is debatable, but is usually figured out by the judges of Canadian Idol.

2010