I continue to struggle to ID birds, since it’s so hard for me to find them visually. I have often thought that someone should create a key that could be used to ID birds by their sound. I have been hearing a bird that moves through here every May (midwest). They’re here for about three or four weeks and then we don’t hear them any more. And last night, while watching the most recent Rocky movie, at the very end when he goes to Adrian’s grave, I heard it again, prompting me to write. Is there any way to ID a bird from its sound? Colibri, or anyone else, any thoughts? xo, C.
How about this?
I find them kind of a pain - your best bet is to memorize songs over the winter and be ready for spring migration.
There is a description and a “sonogram” type drawing in Peterson’s guides, if you already have an idea of what general kind of bird you have. I use them to remember birds that look pretty similar at a quick glance - or any darn smaller flycatchers around here!
This book is an absolutely fascinating compilation of 250 different bird songs, photos and descriptions. I spend way too much time with it.
The only drawback is no way to go directly to a certain bird - you have to scroll through the numbers using up and down. Otherwise, it’s a splendid book.
CC, I haven’t seen the movie, but if you can write a mnemoic for the sound (or e-mail me a clip) I might be able to tell you. Try listening to a recording of a mourning dove- the dove has a song that is often used in sad scenes. Here is a link to the Cornell Macaulay Library of bird and animal sounds.
I’m not aware of any “sound key” that will allow a non-expert to identify an unknown bird song. And unless it is something obvious, it’s kind of tough to describe songs sufficiently in words to make them identifiable to others. (I’ve just started writing a new field guide to the birds of Panama, and describing the vocalizations in words is by far the toughest part.)
Some birds sing only during the first part of the breeding season while they are courting mates. They may still be around, but you won’t here them for the rest of the summer.
I found an attempt at one on line, but it wasn’t very good. I do think it should be possible to do it. I imagine there are a number of characteristics that could be used to set up a key, but so far, I sure haven’t come across one, either.
Most interesting. I just assumed they were travelling through.
Beaucarnea, I’ll try to write out what it sounded like. Definitely is not a mourning dove.
You are in the midwest, and according to IMDB Rocky Balboa was shot in California, Pennsylvania and Nevada. I haven’t seen the movie but I’m guessing the grave scene was set in Pennsylvania? So we can start by only considering birds found in both places.
It may not help though, I know of cases where soundtracks have bird sounds that were recorded elsewhere.
It wasn’t by any chance a house wren?
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i7210id.html (click link for song).
nope - not a house wren. Ok, try this: a very high pitched, insecure sounding whistle, on two notes. The two are usually a minor third apart (such as between g and e below it). The first is the only one on the g, and the rest are on the e. And the rhythm of it is sort of, Heeeeeeyyyyy, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on. But not as perfectly precisely as that might indicate. The “Heeeeyyyyy” sometimes is broken into two tones a step or half step apart, the first higher. The song is very high. And I’m convinced that there’s something in the way the bird makes the sound that makes it very hard to locate. We have a bunch of trees around us, and if I sit on our deck, sooner or later I can spot whoever is singing if they’re at all in the vicinity. But this guy almost throws his voice. Ideas now?
CC, try the Northern Cardinal. Specifically catalog number **94287 ** (look at the left hand column on the Macaulay Library page for the number). The Cardinal has several variations of his call depending on intent and geographic location.
Also, check Black-capped chickadee, catalog number 14642. He says “Heeeey, Sweetie.”
Yeah, I can see how you got that from my description. Most excellent guess, but nope - that’s not it. I know the cardinals in this area and know their multiple calls. This is much weaker and higher than a cardinal. And all the cardinals in this area stand up proud when they sing and you can’t miss 'em when you’re trying to find one. This behavior is quite different. Unless…when they’re mating in the spring they sound and act totally different from the rest of the year. I guess that’s a possibility. Oh, one other thing. We only hear them from sunrise until about 10 am. Diagnostic? I doubt it, since that’s when a lot of birds sing. But maybe. And the cardinals are going at the same time, and also during the day.
Let me try one more before I rent the movie.
Tufted timouse has a high, fading call- “Peter, peter, peter” Catalog number 94271
Look at this great article I found. A Field Guide to Hollywood Bird Songs. by Robert Winkler.
The Linnaean Society of New York used to have a competition for “greatest range extension of a bird based on a movie,” for all those out-of-place Hollywood birds.
Two of my favorites:
In Charlie’s Angels, the Angels figure out where Bosley is being held because they hear the call of a “Pygmy Nuthatch” in the background on an audio device. First of all, the Pygmy Nuthatch is found all over the place, so you couldn’t pinpoint a locality from that. Second, the bird they show when the “nuthatch” is calling is a Troupial, a kind of tropical oriole that’s about as different from a nuthatch as can be. The error is so bizarre that I’m sure it must have been an inside joke by the crew.
In AI-Artificial Intelligence, in a scene set in a forest somewhere in North America, a Screaming Piha, which lives in Amazonia, is clearly heard in the background. Again, I suspect an in-joke by the crew since the film takes place in a global-warming future.
White throated sparrow. Audubon field guide lists the mnemonic as “Sweet, sweet canada canada canada” Here are two different dialects of the song. This one from a .gov site. And this one from the Macaulay Library catalog number 15608.
Here are some pictures from Google images- shy bird blends in well.
Found it only after renting Rocky and watching the scene described by CC. And Colibri, I saw Charlie’s Angels in the theater, and said to my boyfriend “I don’t know what kind of bird that was, but it was not a nuthatch” (To which he replied with a very kind tone: “Dork”. Self-fulfilling prophecy, that one.)
Gotta hand it to ya, darlin’, you’re one tenatious gal. One site I saw said that EVERYbody knows that song. Duh. Interestingly enough, I had just spotted one on the ground about a week ago. I’d never seen one before - the yellow nares are diagnostic, though, so I knew what it was. Thanks a gazillion. Man, the Dopers are the greatest!!! xo, C.
Oddly enough, today I happened to hear about this site, which has a feature that allows you to search for a (human) song by humming or singing part of it. I wonder how feasible it would be to implement such a system for bird songs? I’d guess it would be easier for melodic calls rather than percussive ones. Might make a good Ph.D. project.