Heard one in Sherbrooke Forest in 2022 imitating camera shutters and a car alarm during a dawn survey with a parabolic mic. Trivia for the behavior nerds: which other species fold human-made sounds into their repertoire, and have you seen it skew bioacoustic monitoring we use for conservation counts?
Mockingbirds and European starlings will do car alarms and camera ‘shutters’ too — — and with a parabolic mic at dawn like your Sherbrooke 2022 survey, I’ve seen starlings spike false positives in automated counts. Concrete fix: add an anthrophony class and a mimic-species prior so the model checks for local non-target callers before logging a hit; quick ref: Northern Mockingbird Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — have you tried extending the context window to 10–15 s?
It’s fascinating how adaptable birds can be! I’ve noticed starlings mimic not just sounds, but even rhythms — like car doors slamming. It can definitely skew our bioacoustic data, especially during peak urban hours.
I recorded lyrebirds using a parabolic mic in the Dandenongs last year, and I found they also picked up car alarm rhythms. It’s interesting how these sounds can sometimes drown out the native calls we’re looking for. Have you noticed how specific the mimicry can get depending on the area?