This is Bird Note. The white-throated sparrows, melancholy whistle, is

hauntingly beautiful. Some birders remember the syllables of the tune as old Sam

Peabody Peabody Peabody. But when you hear an adult sparrow performing, just know

that the bird wasn't always an expert singer. In the fall, listen for white-throated

sparrows rehearsing their song. Inexperienced young birds, hatched during the

preceding summer months, sometimes begin with disorganized jumbles of notes, known as

sub-songs. As winter deepens, the first-year birds begin to get the syllables of

their songs down, but they might sound shaky and off-key. Any musician knows that

sometimes you have to mess up over and over until you get it just right. In the spring,

you might hear some overexcited hiccups. But by summer, hopefully all the new

adult birds will be virtuosos, confidently joining the other mature

sparrows, and making it all sound easy for bird note. I'm Michael Stein.