Help with bird call identification

Factual Questions
1
  1. The call in question:

Descending
D5 C A A A
Long long short short short. Sometimes an extra short A at the end.
If the long notes are one beat and the short are half, it was maybe 85 bpm.
Raspier than, say, a cardinal.

  1. Is there a standard way to do this by text?

  2. I tried some website that was effectively a flow chart, but no luck absent listening to every file they have.
    Guide to North American BirdSongs
    I hear a lot more birds than I see. If they’re on the ground or a low branch and I can see them belting it out, then I can match them. But often they’re too high or too backlit, or I can’t even see them.

Looks like there are some apps that do this. I’ll have to see if their privacy settings are tolerable.

2

Where are you located?

3

Location says DC.

I’ve been trying to improve my “caller ID” :wink: for some time, and do not have a good answer. I believe there are somewhat recent apps where you can record the sound and they will ID the bird (similar to unknown songs), but I haven’t looked into them. Not an app person. Several years back, the tech was not there yet.

My approach has been to learn the sounds of the birds I expect to hear around me. That way, I am more likely to hear something different. Then combine it with lists of birds you can expect to see in your area. Difficulty will be compounded during migration times.

Then I got several CDs of calls which I listened to during my commute. Helped me ID a few.

Good luck.

4

Do you have a smart phone? Just record it and post it, like this.

5

I strongly suspect from your description that it’s a White-Throated Sparrow. Their call can either be ascending or descending; listen to the second “Song” clip at the above link and see if it matches what you’re hearing.

6

Bingo, thanks. I saw what I thought were maybe white-throateds, but then I thought no, they’re song sparrows. But we may have both.

7

Lack of glasses combined with a dog who thinks birds are hopping and flying murdertoys also makes for less careful study.