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, 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 subsongs.

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 over-excited hiccups.

But by summer, hopefully, all the new adult birds will be virtuosos, confidently joining the other mature sparrows, making it all sound easy.

For bird note, I'm Michael Stein.