Spring 75: Basics

Monday, June 6, 2011
7:30am-7:50am, my street, Jamaica Plain, MA

At the FIGMENT festival on Saturday, there was a period of about 10-15 minutes when several singing birds came close to my performance area.

Afterwards, an audience member asked me which birds they were, and I mentioned that I had heard the ubiquitous house sparrow among them. He asked me what the house sparrow sounded like, and I was perturbed to find that I couldn't give him a very precise answer.

House sparrows are the most basic urban birds - they gather in trees and bushes in both commercial and residential areas. You probably hear them on your street daily, rain or shine, four seasons (if your street is anything like mine).

They are so common that I tend to ignore them and listen for more unusual birds. But I see that for urban outdoors performances I need to know this bird call!

Today I decided to get a good recording to work on: