Icterid songs

Red-winged Blackbird, two males counter-singing (Apr, NJ). Each male has a repertoire of up to nine songs.











Red-winged Blackbird with the vaguely similar Seaside Sparrow singing (Apr, NJ).










Female Red-winged Blackbirds have calls that could be interpreted as a song (May, NJ).












Rusty Blackbirds singing in migration (Apr, NJ).












Male of a migrating pair singing (Apr, NJ). The second, higher phrase, may have been the male, or possibly the accompanying female. I have heard pairs duetting in migration.





















In the spring Rusty Blackbirds move north in noisy flocks of singing birds, often with Red-winged Blackbirds mixed in. This flock of about fifty birds was in a wooded area with standing water in April, again in SW NJ.
Hopefully we'll continue to hear this sound, as Rusty Blackbirds are dramatically declining.





The Common Grackle "song" is call-like and squeaky, and can resemble the Rusty Blackbird song. Each individual has only one song. In the following example, two birds appeared to be duetting (Mar, PA). At least one (the other was hidden) performed the ruffed out display as it sang.











Another example (Apr, NJ).












Boat-tailed Grackle singing at dawn (Apr, NJ).




















Song with wing-fluttering.













The Brown-headed Cowbird song is a bubbly note at the start and followed by a whistle (Apr, PA).













Baltimore Oriole (May, PA).











(May, NJ).











(May, NJ)











The song often sounds like nothing more than a call (May, NJ).












Orchard Oriole (Eastern Kingbird in background, May, NJ).











Bobolink (June, NJ).