My new apartment has held one lovely surprise–on several evenings in the early dusk, I’ve heard a very musical birdcalling from the window of my office. This gives onto a lightwell with the roof about eight feet up. It’s a flat roofed, second storey building. I assume that whatever I’m hearing roosts nearby.
What’s driving me crazy is that it’s one of ‘those’ bird sounds, ie, one of the famous ones you hear in movies, etc., but being relatively new to the wet coast, I don’t know which bird it is.
I do know that it’s not a poor-will; I’ve just downloaded a clip and that’s not it. Does anyone have a better idea?
I’m not good at describing bird calls, but this one is a lowish warble, closer perhaps to a loon’s call than anything I can think of, but it’s certainly not a loon. It shares that throaty, musical quality, tho. Actually, the timbre isn’t a million miles from a wooden flute, now that I think of it.
Four (or so) notes; the first three repeated and the last more emphatic, close to the same pitch, I think. I hear it once only per evening. Last time I heard it (days ago) I looked at the time and it was 7 pm. The internet says that official sunset in Vancouver at this time of year is just after nine, so it’s a dusk rather than night caller, at least when I hear it.
Blackbird.
“The blackbird sounds his boxwood flute”.
They sound great at a distance, but one is roosting near your bedroom it can drive you up the wall. I don’t know what you might do about it. Hire a sparrowhawk or something.
We don’t have those kind of blackbirds in NA. Cardinals will sometimes make a long low call of single notes in the evenings as you describe, s1m0n, but each note is falling. There are more than 200 songbirds in BC, so you can take your pick.
There are red-winged blackbirds, and out west (e.g. BC) they have yellow-headed blackbirds, but these trill and chirp, as opposed to singing. s1m0n could probably find recordings at his local library of Vancouver-area birds. I looked on the web, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of recorded bird-song that you could match to a geographical area for BC, just pictures.
Probably not, since the ones we have don’t ever call just once
Maybe you’ll be able to get your answer by process of elimination…
I know it’s hard to identify birds just by their call. On our 3 week trip to Brazil, we kept hearing this obnoxious little bird saying “Sixty-three! Sixty-three!”
None of my friends knew what it was (they were all bug and plant people).
I kept asking around and finally (back in the US) I asked the right person and he said “Oh! It’s the Bem-ti-vi”
Took me several months of asking!
So-- good luck-- doesn’t sound like your bird says any distinctive “words” that you can use as a help.
The Blackbird or Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) is a European member of the thrush family Turdidae.
It is common in woods and gardens over all of Europe and much of Asia south of the Arctic Circle. Populations are resident except for northern birds which move south in winter[citation needed]. Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year[1].
I looked at the picture of your blackbird and to me it looks like a robin (Turdus migratorius) dipped in ink! Of course, your robin looks like our chickadee dipped in tomato juice. It’s so confusing
The Icterids are a group of small to medium, often colourful passerine birds restricted to the New World.
This group includes such popular forms as the New World blackbirds, New World orioles, the Bobolink, meadowlarks, grackles, cowbirds, oropendolas and caciques.
Despite the similar names, the first groups are not related to the Old World Blackbird (a thrush, Turdidae), or the Old World orioles (Oriolidae).
Not a Blackbird, but a black bird. We share this one.
Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The name Sturnidae comes from the Latin word, sturnus, for Starling. Starlings occur naturally only in the Old World (Europe, Asia and Africa), some forms as far east as Australia, but several European and Asian species have been introduced to North America, Australia, and New Zealand…Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, are called mynas
Yes, it is hard for most of us to identify birds by their calls. However, the experienced watcher of birds will be proficient in doing so, as many bird calls are so distinctive. I like to identify birds at the feeders in my back yard. I have a feeders with millet in the winter, blackoil sunflower seeds, and thistle seeds for the birds with tiny bills. The birds that sit on the feeders in good light are usually fairly easy to identify. It is the tiny birds sitting in the tree tops in dense foliage in poor light conditions that test my patience. That is where it is good to have an experience person by your side to say, “Oh, that is a red-eyed vireo”.
Thanks, Caroluna, for the wedding gift. As I sit in a pub in Dublin on Saturday, I will lift a glass with a toast to you and my other friends at C & F.
Chill, Babe. Yer amongst friends. (At least where I’m concerned, anyway. )
Starlings in Europe mimic any kind of noise, including phone noises, reversing vehicles and (for instance) breaking glass. They can be pests in the morning, especially if they’ve got YOUR ringtone to a T.
Yes, he did, on the 26th. I was pedantic enough to write the date on my calendar. Congrats Doug and Rita!
Not if you keep talking about fixated child molesters with foot fetishes
Ah yes, the proverbial pedantic pederast podiatrist. Kevin just pointed out that this discussion really belongs on the Foot Fetish Forum.
Meanwhile-- I’m still trying to find that mystery bird call but I think I’m going to have to give up. Here’s the best I could do.
Yes, Rita and I were married in our back yard on Saturday, May 26. We are leaving for a honeymoon on Friday. We will be flying to Dublin and touring southern Ireland for ten days. Then we will take the ferry to Wales with a stop at Stonehenge and on for two days in London. We also have Chunnel tickets for the train to Paris. Rita is anxious to show me around her favorite city. Most of our photos from the wedding have not arrived yet, but a friend took this photo of Rita and me on our wedding day. I look like I am ready to awake from my snooze, only to find that I am now married. Actually, I was just taking a few winks before we started on the food and drinks.
Thank you. I have been advised, however, not to refer to Ireland or England as Europe. Those may be fighting words, and I don’t want to pick any fight in an Irish pub. More properly, I will wait until I emerge from under the English Channel before I say that I am in Europe.
The fact that you only here it once per evening, combined with the fact that it is always at 7 o’clock, leads me to believe you are really dealing with something like this –
Singing Bird Clock sings its heart out, every hour on the hour. 12 favorite bird songs starting with the House Finch, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, Blue Jay, House Wren, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Oriole, Mourning Dove, Black-capped chickadee, Northern Cardinal, White-throated Sparrow and the White-brested Nuthatch.
In a fit of temporary insanity, I got one as an impulse purchase when I was buying a bird feeder. Although it has a light sensor on it to keep it from chirping every hour through the night, it still got obnoxious. But it stil kept good time, and not being one to throw out a perfectly good clock, I took the batteries out of the the little song generator. Chalk these up as something that sounds like a good idea in theory, but that in practice leaves something to be desired.
