Help! Vancouver birdcalls at dusk.

[s1m0n]

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.

[Innocent Bystander]

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.

[djm]

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.

djm

[Innocent Bystander]

No Blackbirds?

No "Bye Bye Blackbird" ?

No "Blackbird singing in the dead of night"?

No "My Pretty Blackbird"?

Well, stone the crows. (To coin a phrase).

All those Irish songs about blackbirds must come over as really exotic, eh?

[djm]

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.

djm

[Innocent Bystander]

A vertical market opens for the sound-recordist who is also a bird-fancier.

[Caroluna]

Could it possibly be this?? Mourning dove

http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/birdsong.php?id=7

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!"

http://tools.wikimedia.de/~gmaxwell/jor ... gg&wiki=en



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!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Kiskadee

So-- good luck-- doesn't sound like your bird says any distinctive "words" that you can use as a help.

[djm]

we kept hearing this obnoxious little bird saying "Sixty-three! Sixty-three!"

Great call description!

We are table sixty-eight, sixty-eight, sixty-eight.
We are table sixty-eight.
Where the hell is sixty-nine?

- old Oktoberfest rhyme

djm

[Caroluna]

No Blackbirds?

No "Bye Bye Blackbird" ?

No "Blackbird singing in the dead of night"?

No "My Pretty Blackbird"?

Well, stone the crows. (To coin a phrase).

All those Irish songs about blackbirds must come over as really exotic, eh?

None of us over here have your blackbird! I didn't realize that til just now.


Old World Blackbird

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbird

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


New World Blackbird

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icterid

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starling

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

[Caroluna]

pe·dan·tic

ADJECTIVE:

Characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules: a pedantic attention to details.

....I'm being a bird nerd Right, Deej?

[Doug_Tipple]

I know it's hard to identify birds just by their call.

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.

[Innocent Bystander]

pe·dan·tic

ADJECTIVE:

Characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules: a pedantic attention to details.

....I'm being a bird nerd Right, Deej?

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.

[fearfaoin]

Thanks, Caroluna, for the wedding gift.

Did you get married, Doug??

[djm]

Did you get married, Doug??

Means there's hope for any of us, eh?

....I'm being a bird nerd. Right, Deej?

Go for it. There's worse things to be than a fixated child molester with a foot fetish.

djm

[Caroluna]

Thanks, Caroluna, for the wedding gift.

Did you get married, Doug??

Yes, he did, on the 26th. I was pedantic enough to write the date on my calendar. Congrats Doug and Rita!

Means there's hope for any of us, eh?

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.

feral pigeon? they like to nest on rooves
http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/sou ... pigeon.mp3

chuck will's widow
http://sirismm.si.edu/testperl/nasongke ... %27s-widow

White-winged dove
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/htmwav2/h3190so.mp3
you probably don't have white-winged doves that far north, but you might have something just like the white winged dove

Here is a key to many North American bird songs. They have lots of sound clips. What a cool resource!

http://sirismm.si.edu/keystuff/song1.htm