Mystery bird

Yesterday at Maplewood Flats, North Vancouver, occupied Coast Salish territories, a brown bird was fluttering in a tree and eating blossoms when it dropped this song. Can you help me return it to him? Mystery bird by Blacksquirrel

Mystery bird was brown, with a heavily streaked breast, a moderately thick beak (sparrow/finch-like), a long, slender, notched tail, house finch-like. Size of a large sparrow, bit smaller than a thrush. Feeding in a tree, then in bramble thicket. Very active, bursting into song in the middle of a mouthful and dropping the flower it had just plucked! Any ideas?

Update
It has been suggested by a more knowledgeable birder than myself that this might be a Purple Finch imitating a Swainson's Thrush. It does sound like a cross between the Purple Finch's song and the Swainson's Thrush's! However if it was a Purple Finch, then it wasn't an adult male, because it didn't have any colour apart from brown and whitish. Also I've heard it (though not seen it) both times I've been back to Maplewood Flats since I made the recording. So would an immature male be practicing his vocals by very consistently and repeatedly borrowing another bird's song? It might enable him to avoid the ire of territorial males... Though I haven't noticed any other Purple Finches. Also, I haven't noticed any Swainson's Thrushes, so where would a juvenile have learned their song? Surely a year-old finch is no longer a juvenile, right? Or would a female Purple Finch have discovered a musical yearning? There was I assuming only male songbirds sang! Many questions still to be explored...

"The Purple Finch (sober-colored) is a rich singer. As I said the other day, something like a Warbling-Vireo, only louder, clearer, mellower and more various." - Henry David Thoreau


Update 2
The plot thickens as I find out that male Purple Finches take 2 years to get their adult plumage; first year males look like females. So maybe this is a one year-old male who heard the Swainson's Thrush last year and is singing it again this year before the actual Swainson's Thrushes have returned.

The magical song of the Swainson's Thrush is a harbinger of the return of summer and the season of plenty in the Pacific Northwest. In several First Nation languages along the coast of British Columbia it is known as "Salmonberry Bird" because its song rises from the thickets at the same time as the salmonberries start to ripen. In several languages such as Saanich, the song even lists the different colors and kinds of salmonberries (golden, red, dark...).

Would a hungry Purple Finch be trying to hasten the ripening of the berries?

Classifieds

All ranges needed for daily choir

Dawn Chorus still seeking supplementary voices to assist permanent singers (Song Sparrow, Robin, White-Crowned Sparrow) in giving thanks to sun. Early birds only need apply. No real spring chorus until all soloists back from winter break.

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Carcass disposal

All your carrion disposal needs taken care of. On time. Quiet. Efficient. Just back in town. Contact Turkey Vulture through smell on wind only. No putrefaction please.

Birds: “Humans have a right to be here too”

The Council of Ground-Feeding Birds, a working-group of the United Bird Nations, has issued resolution aimed at clarifying bird-human relationships in the wild commonwealths.

During the discussion period, Towhee declared the following:

“Of course humans have a right to be here too. The troubling thing is, we’ve noticed that many humans seem to doubt this. And when a human acts like they don’t belong, we get alarmed.”

Robin went further into the analysis of the urban human’s mindset:

“Two days ago a passing human was thinking: 'you birds must really resent us humans for what we’ve done to you!' as if we couldn’t tell the difference between a casual walker and those truly responsible for our current marginalization! We don’t hate all humans simply because a handful of them have been acting destructively. Do some humans really think in such unmitigated terms?”

“And of course that human, like many, didn’t realize that we can perceive their thoughts;" Varied Thrush continued, "that would become clear if they would let themselves be a part of the forest. The trouble is, I perceive a lot of humans as being victims of an inferiority complex to us, you know? They admire us, put us on a stump [pedestal], while inhibiting their own participation in the world of the forest, as if they were not worthy! We want to tell them, if you’re gonna be in the forest, you have to act on an equal plane! Not wrapped up in your own inner struggles, not wandering elsewhere in your mind while your feet are wandering here! Those things freak me out.”

To clarify what an acceptable participation in the forest world would look like, Song Sparrow explained:

 “Well, humans can walk through at an appropriate speed, look around them with an appropriate gaze, gather materials or graze in an appropriate manner, with an appropriate mind state.”

When asked what was appropriate the assembly shifted uneasily, indicating that the question itself in a departure from wild etiquette.

“There is an appropriate way to do everything. This cannot be explained. It must be learned through participation and observation.”

The resolution itself, adopted unanimously, is to be sung during dawn chorus until the new moon, so be sure to tune in for advice on forest etiquette.

All birds agreed that while overcoming the sense of alienation many humans experience in the wild would not be sufficient to be instantly accepted by all creatures, it is an important step. They promised to keep advice coming to dedicated bipeds wishing to return to their senses.