# Identify a Bird-Call? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 27, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730 "2014-11-27T00:51:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/1 "2014-11-27T00:51:36Z")
Up in the Laguna Mountains, in the east of San Diego County, right where the mountains drop away into the desert, but still way up in the pines… Five notes. C, C, C, A, A. Quarter note, eighth note, quarter, quarter, quarter. (Approximately, anyway.) Five notes, then a long pause, and then the same five notes again. He can do this for hours! Very monotonous…but still kind of pleasant. Anybody know whom I’m hearing? (I looked at several on-line bird-call guides, but couldn’t find it.) Happy birding! ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/2 "2014-11-27T05:27:57Z")
No clue, but did you try [whatbird](http://www.whatbird.com/)? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/3 "2014-12-01T03:27:43Z")
**chiroptera** : Whatbird is a nifty site, but doesn’t seem to have a feature to identify birds by their calls. There are some other sites that do this…but I keep coming up blank. Ah, well! A mystery! ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/4 "2014-12-01T06:45:31Z")
Another potential resource: [http://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird/](http://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisbird/) ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/5 "2014-12-01T07:09:33Z")
Great area, a lot of migratory birds are showing up there right now. Let us know if you figure it out. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/6 "2014-12-01T14:12:16Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > **chiroptera** : Whatbird is a nifty site, but doesn’t seem to have a feature to identify birds by their calls. There are some other sites that do this…but I keep coming up blank. > > Ah, well! A mystery! They’ve hidden it pretty well, but[this page](http://identify.whatbird.com/mwg/_/0/attrs.aspx) on the whatbird site has two different ways to search by call. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/7 "2014-12-01T14:25:00Z")
I have no idea what C, C, C, A, A sounds like. But I do know that the only bird I’ve ever heard singing 5 notes sounded like a cross between the chorus of Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramp and Thieves” and the opening of Black Sabbeth’s “Iron Man.” Is that the same budgie? ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/8 "2014-12-01T15:12:27Z")
C to A falling or rising? If falling, then I’d guess a chickadee. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/9 "2014-12-01T21:35:47Z")
Agreed. Chickadee. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/10 "2014-12-01T21:41:31Z")
Examples here: > **[Mountain Chickadee Sounds, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/mountain_chickadee/sounds)** > > The tiny Mountain Chickadee is a busy presence overhead in the dry evergreen forests of the mountainous West. Often the nucleus in mixed flocks of small birds, Mountain Chickadees flit through high branches, hang upside down to pluck insects or seeds... ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-bird-call/705730/11 "2014-12-01T22:55:35Z")
That’s the little guy! Mountain Chickadee! Thank you! Good mountain trails, although the lakes are dry these days. The Chickadees are good company along the way!