If I had to pick the most typical sound of a Maine summer, it would be the sound of a song sparrow singing on a sunny day. These birds seem to sing mostly while hidden in a bush or tree where no one can see that their billows of musical happiness are emanating from a small, plain creature that looks – but does not sound – like many other small, brown, blurry birds.
(I spent about 15 minutes trying to find the song sparrow shown below that was singing from within an old apple tree, and I did so only after he poked his head out briefly, apparently to see if I was still there.)
The principal song that these sparrows sing is complex and difficult to describe. Henry David Thoreau noted that early rural Americans translated the melody into these words to remember the song: “Maids! Maids! Maids! hang up your teakettle-ettle-ettle.” (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 23, 2023.)