Bird ID needed (with a twist)

trapper501

trapper501

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No pic I'm afraid. (that's the twist)

How do you go about trying to identify a bird solely from it's call (or at least getting some idea what it is?)

I can't imagine how I am supposed to explain the sound.

All i can say is it is very loud, and sounds like a repetition of somebody moving a gate with a rusty hinge back and forth.

Not that it necessarily sounds like the hinge, but the repetition of the two different sounds is reminiscent of the sort of two slightly different noises you get when you go one way then the other with the hinge.

I saw a chaffinch in a tree the other day singing its heart out and it was very similar to that, but not quite there. I need louder.
 
If it's keeping you awake in the morning most likely a Song Thrush. A sort of 'whoop whoop' rising at the end of the 'whoop'?
 
Doesnt one of the tits make a repeating squeek sound? Great tit maybe?
 
no to
pheasant
Jay
Magpie
wren
Great tit
chiff chaff

I'm sure my description is putting you off. single note played two ways around 6 pairs.. so imagine breathing in and breathing out to make the two slightly different notes, very loud,
 
next doors kids are swinging on the gate!
 
Cobra said:
These are a pain in the ass this time of year
and early mornings as well
http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=022M-W1CDR0001523-2000V0.xml#

Starlings are excellent mimics too
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No, not a dove or pigeon noise. I doubt it is a starling but if it were what was it copying?

The plumber that was working there the other day asked what it was because he had them near his house too. So that's woodland/farmland and urban. Must be a common bird with a wide range of habitat.

It isn't as loud as the peacocks, but it is quite loud.
 
Liam said:
Little owl?
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That was very creative, but no.

Unless the kids travel around a lot I don't think it is them either.

perhaps I will try to record it on my phone. There is obviously enough talent on here to identify, the problem is my ability to describe it!
 
trapper501 said:
perhaps I will try to record it on my phone. There is obviously enough talent on here to identify, the problem is my ability to describe it!
Click to expand...

:thinking:... Surely if you can do that you should be able to get a photograph to make it a little easier for us... :naughty:


Or at least some sort of description... :shrug:





:p

 
Venomator said:

:thinking:... Surely if you can do that you should be able to get a photograph to make it a little easier for us... :naughty:


Or at least some sort of description... :shrug:





:p
Click to expand...

If I had ever seen it, I would already know what it was!
 
Venomator said:
Ah I see... :thinking: ... as there is no mention of such in your OP I guess we're just supposed to know such things silly me... :D ... just trying to help... :shrug:

:p
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Well I did ask how to identify a bird solely by its call.
 
Venomator said:
Yes, but only after you had said "No pic I'm afraid."... :shrug:


And, as I mistakenly did, that could be taken to mean you hadn't been able to get one... yet... ;)

:p
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Oh I see, well there is no pic, and it is yet because I haven't seen what is making the noise. Nor has the plumber.

So we have this bird making a distinctive call and I wanted to know how you go about identifying a bird solely from its call.

I think we have established it is very difficult.

There are ways of using field guides for graphic images. You can narrow it down by size, by location, by bill shape, by colour etc.

I was hoping there might be a similar route for bird calls, complexity,number of notes, pitch, that sort of thing. If I could narrow it down to even a dozen I could listen to them and try and work out what it was.
 
I just noticed you are in Dorset. Where exactly? That would help maybe to narrow down the bird species...?

We had a fieldfare in our garden about a year ago that made some funny noises. He was quite visible though...
 
This bird is in Sturminster Marshall (very rural) and Northbourne (very suburban)

heard early morning and still going strong mid morning.
 
I understand that Trapper and whilst there may be a method of narrowing the choice it will never be quite as straightforward as actual identification... :shrug:

For starters... :cautious:

Habitat - rural, semi rural, garden, field, ditch, hedgerow and so on... this will help to narrow the species to a group specific to habitat.

Where - was it heard, trees, shrubs, high up, low down and so on... many birds have a preference for where they vent their spleens and this, again, might help reduce the shortlist.

Time of day - regular as in dawn chorus only or any time of day and totally irregularly... some birds only apply themselves to singing in the morning or the evening and others don't give a hoot about the time of day.

Other birds - around at the time that may help with the i.d. process...

Vocabulary - was it limited to two notes (as you suggest) or did other parts occur at any time... most birds have quite a rich library of songs whereas others are limited in their repetoire and this, again, can help shortlisting further.

Of course none of this will help you actually identify the bird from its song it will only help to limit the number of possibilities to the point where you can then check out the potential suspects from disks/net sources an so on.

You have had some pretty good pointers already in this thread so any further pointers to narrow the choices may help to give you a better chance... :shrug:


HTH... :D



EDIT... sorry I was a bit slow as I got interrupted and you have already posted some more information from this lot... :D

:p
 
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No, not a crow.

It is a song I think, I don't know if there are other sections to it, as I don't know who is making it I can't pick out another part of the song, but it is very distinctive, I'm not the only one to pick up on this aspect of it and to the best of my knowledge this is the song in its entirety.

It may have other calls it makes at other times.

I've covered location, time, number of notes etc. I never thought this would be easy but felt sure that the bird would be known to you, and probably to me, my difficulty is describing the noise so you would recognise it.

For the moment don't worry about the note, lets get the type of sound. So imagine sawing a piece of wood, you make one noise going forward, one noise going back. That's the effect of the noise but not what it sounds like. It repeats for about 6 cycles, but not always the same number of cycles. It doesn't appear to have another component to the song.
 
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Venomator said:
Dunnock... HERE... :shrug:

:p
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that last bit of the dunnock was the closest. The actual sound is like that whistle but in the form of the saw, so in out in out in out in out in out. Perhaps each in out taking just under a second.
 
Oh you see now I think we've heard the same song.

I thought of a rusty squeeky bike wheel on a straight two beat rhythm of high squeek, low squeek, high squeek, low squeek - about 4-5 repeats then it stops. But rusty gate squeeking too and fro in the breeze sounds a good description too. Does that match what you've heard?

I have been too embarrassed to collar our local RSPB bloke and sing to him, assuming it was something quite common - but thanks to prompt from this thread and trawling through the RSPB site can rule out all the stuff posted here, and sparrows, tits, finches and dunnock, though dunnock was closest I think.

Heard it only in last month or so, heading out over open fields from village to lightly wooded lake/fen area, in early morning to afternoon.

Hope someone points you at the right one - else its go through all 300 birds on RSPB site and hope its there!
 
really random 1 to look for but search for an amazon red wing parrot, we had 1 outside our house and he was loud, and his call was 2 calls bein repeated several times, a commenly bred bird in the uk, could be an escapee
 
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