|
|
- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI14090833/00001
Notes
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Carolina Wrens 1
Length of Segment: 00:01:13
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. One of the loudest of Florida birds, the Carolina wren, is also common and intimately associated with people. Listen for its clarion 'teakettle, teakettle, teakettle' or 'gibberdee, gibberdee, gibberdee'. Its songs can vary; indeed scientists have recorded nearly 150 different songs from these birds, some almost mechanical, but all loud. This rust-colored, sparrow-sized bird with a thin, inch-long, slightly curved bill loves spiders. As it hunts for spiders it can also be seen poking around under the eaves of houses, or in garages and car ports, or even under the hood of your car. Carolina wrens not only find their favorite food near us, they also find unusual nest sites. Carolina wrens build nests of pine straw and other materials in a hidden place; in the wild, often in a decayed tree, but near humans, often in an old boot, or coffee can, or shoe box in a garage or car port, or in the middle of a hanging fern. I've even found Carolina wren nests under the hood of my car, which I left parked for a month as they raised their family. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Carolina Wrens 2
Length of Segment: 00:01:07
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. The Carolina wren is a tiny bird about the size of a sparrow. It has a distinctive rusty back, long rusty black- barred tail that it often holds cocked upwards, a pale rusty breast, and a striking white line above each eye. Like all of our wrens, the Carolina wren is a busy searcher of hidden places, living up to the family name of wrens: Troglodytidae, meaning cave dweller. The Carolina wren readily enters dark places such as tree hollows, caves, the ends of pipes, garages, and even open windows to probe into cracks and crevices in buildings, trees and elsewhere in search of insects and spiders. Carolina wrens are not high flyers, they rarely rise more than a few feet above the ground, and they are local residents, staying close to home and maintaining a pair-bond year round. Although Carolina wrens can be found throughout the eastern United States and into Southern Canada, they're most common in the southeast, and their numbers are often greatly reduced in northern areas due to winter weather. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Carolina Wrens 3
Length of Segment: 00:01:12
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. We often think of birds as nesting in spring, but the Carolina wren makes it a nearly year-around effort. In Florida, Carolina wren nests have been found from February to November, although most nesting takes place between March and July. Carolina wren nests are hidden in some recess, and nests sites range from tree cavities and tangles of vines to baskets of hanging plants, coffee cans, mailboxes and old shoes. Whatever the site, these wrens fill it up, building a domed cup-like nest of pine needles, bark, dried grasses, mosses or leaves. Nest building is a team effort, but often the male spends most of his time following his mate and singing as she collects nest material. This wren's three to five eggs are pinkish-white and finely spotted with rust; they’re cared for by the female. During the two weeks it takes for the eggs to hatch, the male delivers meals of juicy spiders and insects. Once the eggs hatch, both parents are busy bringing food until the young leave the nest about twelve days later. Shortly after the young leave the nest, the wrens start again, often producing three or more broods in a year. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Carolina Wrens 4
Length of Segment: 00:01:17
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. The Carolina wren is a master songster with a loud and varied repertoire of whistles, trills, and buzzes. As with other birds, it uses song to defend its territory, attract a mate and to coordinate activities between the pair. The Carolina wren is also a mimic, a lesson I learned the hard way. I once recruited a group of students to help me search several square miles of dense forests for nest trees of the endangered red-concaded woodpecker. The plan was that we would walk through the forest in a line, spaced about 150 feet apart. The undergrowth was so dense that we couldn't see one another, so I provided each student with a referee's whistle and we developed a code we would use: one blast on the whistle meant “Here I am, where are you?”, two blasts meant “Wait, I’m stopping to check something”, three meant “I found something, come here”. It was a great plan, but I hadn't considered the Carolina wrens. What I hadn't realized was that Carolina wrens can mimic a referee's whistle, and they did. Within an hour, my students were hopelessly scattered, following the signals of several Carolina wrens. I've often wondered if they were as confused as we were. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Carolina Wrens 5
Length of Segment: 00:01:00
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. The voice box of humans is our larynx, perhaps most easily recognized as our 'Adam's Apple'. It's a structure that surrounds our windpipe, the trachea. In birds it's a different structure, the syrinx, that does the job. The syrinx is located lower than the larynx, where the trachea branches into the two bronchial tubes that lead to the lungs. Muscles on right and left sides of a bird's syrinx can work independently, allowing a bird to produce two different sounds simultaneously, singing a duet with itself. The Carolina wren's vocal repertoire of more than 150 different songs is made possible by the syrinx and its complex, well-developed set of syringial muscles. The Carolina wren's vocal abilities are even further showcased by duets sung between members of a pair. ( English )
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Added automatically
- Holding Location:
- Added automatically
- Rights Management:
- Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the users responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.
- Resource Identifier:
- FI00900166
|
|
