I have a bird outside my window that I can’t see, but can hear. It is making me nuts.
It sort of sounds like eeeep eep. A long and then short eep. It starts early in the morning. I hear it less as the day passes and in the evenings it is gone (thank og.)
Knowing what it is won’t make me any less nuts, but I’m curious.
The first one that springs to mind is a black-capped chickadee, which does a fairly distinct two-tone call in addition to its eponymous “chick-a-dee” call. (Hopefully that link is accessible — check out the second sample.)
Beyond that, more information would be helpful. Are the notes clear and piercing, or rough and hoarse? Are they on the same pitch, or do they ascend or descend?
Thanks, Athena — I keep forgetting that “All About Birds” is free, and “Birds of North America” is subscription-only. The “typical call” in the “Sounds” section of that link is pretty close to the one I linked to, though it has the lower note repeated (i.e., a three-note call instead of a two-note call.)
Hard to tell from the description, since there’s no relative pitch or direction to go on. One morning bird that could match that description is a phoebe, however.
Yeah, I know, you are right of course. None the less, you nailed it. Going to Athena’s link and typing in phoebe brings up a pic of the bird and its noise. (I refuse to call it a song.) Specifically the Eastern Phoebe (as opposed to the Black Phoebe). It says it is a fly catcher, so I guess it does do me some good, even if it annoys me every morning.