Episode 54: Ovenbird – Voice of the Wild

This is Brodie with Illinois Extension and I’m here with a new “voice of the wild”

This warbler has the appearance of a miniature thrush; largely brown with a speckled chest - they even tend to stay low and hidden like the thrushes, walking gently among the forest duff searching for insects, spiders, and other arthropods. Their most striking visual trait is a blaze of orange between stripes on the top of the head.

This is the ovenbird

The ovenbird nests on the ground in open mature woodlands; that nest is covered with a gently sloping dome of vegetation which necessitates a side-facing entrance. The shape of this nest has a passing resemblance to an old earthen pizza or bread oven, and this is the source of the "ovenbird" name.
As we listen to the ovenbird again, note how their emphatic “teacher teacher teacher” song seems to increase in urgency from beginning to end. And, here it is:

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for today’s sound. Learn more about voice of the wild at go.illinois.edu/VOW