# Staccato bird call on UK dramas **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2017, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266 "2017-06-18T02:38:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harakeke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bbce88/32.png) [@Harakeke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harakeke)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/1 "2017-06-18T02:38:27Z")
I’ve been watching a number of UK dramas online - most recently Inspector Linley Murders. Many of them have the same bird in the background - high pitched rapid staccato call. Does anyone know what it is? Is it a parrot?? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/2 "2017-06-18T03:03:52Z")
[Peafowl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgDw2iIcmQ0)? Rich folks liked to have them wandering their vast estates making noise. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/3 "2017-06-18T03:11:11Z")
I really hope it’s not [this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXA0-YAoo9Q): ---
**Author:** ![Harakeke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bbce88/32.png) [@Harakeke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harakeke)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/4 "2017-06-18T03:21:16Z")
sounds like a shorter version of this: [https://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/conservation/native-animals/birds/bird-song/red-crowned-parakeet-song-4.mp3](https://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/conservation/native-animals/birds/bird-song/red-crowned-parakeet-song-4.mp3) But this is a New Zealand native parrot… ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/5 "2017-06-18T04:30:50Z")
It’s difficult to tell from your description, but maybe a chaffinch or a nightingale? ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/6 "2017-06-18T10:56:42Z")
[Magpie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxtORth2BIY)? Not that high pitched, but Uk native and super-staccato. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/7 "2017-06-18T12:15:45Z")
[Blackbird](http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/sounds/blackbird1.mp3) would be my guess. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/8 "2017-06-18T13:17:09Z")
Those nature sounds are usually inserted into the soundtrack by an artist called the Foley Editor. They are notorious for employing recorded sounds of birds that don’t even naturally occur on the same contiment as the drama being depicted. You always hear common loons in pictures that are set in Louisiana swamps, or cactus wrens in the eastern states. The eastern screech owl is de rigeur in any outdoor nighttime scene. Foley editors have their own favorite bird sounds that render a certain atmosphere to the soundtrack, regardless of the bird itself might ever occur in that habitat. To them, and bird is a bird, and they make sounds fitting to the mood they wish to evoke. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/9 "2017-06-18T13:24:28Z")
TLE: The bird you hear in rural scenes in every Australian film is the butcher bird, but I never heard a single one in my visit to the outback in that continent. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/NGzasKOtjXI/maxresdefault.jpg "Butcher Bird Singing for 6 mins.MP4") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGzasKOtjXI) ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/10 "2017-06-18T23:46:05Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Those nature sounds are usually inserted into the soundtrack by an artist called the Foley Editor. They are notorious for employing recorded sounds of birds that don’t even naturally occur on the same contiment as the drama being depicted. You always hear common loons in pictures that are set in Louisiana swamps, or cactus wrens in the eastern states. The eastern screech owl is de rigeur in any outdoor nighttime scene. Foley editors have their own favorite bird sounds that render a certain atmosphere to the soundtrack, regardless of the bird itself might ever occur in that habitat. To them, and bird is a bird, and they make sounds fitting to the mood they wish to evoke. I once sat in on a tracklay for BBC Holiday (a lifestyle show about holiday destinations and this would have been around 2001). The audio editor was told that if an animal was on screen he should try to find the audio of it. So we got to a shot of a bird in the sky. Neither of us had a clue what it was, and we certainly didn’t have the time to research it, so he found a clip that sounded like it MIGHT come from a bird of that type and size. Who knows if that bird sound would have even existed in that country? But they don’t record sound of all the pictures and the audio would feel empty and dull without these sorts of noises. Not great I know, but it’s all about making something watchable. In my opinion it’s similar with the row about the BBC filming cutaways of different animals and pretending they are all the same one. If anything, it’s worse… ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/11 "2017-06-19T01:57:58Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > [Magpie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxtORth2BIY)? > > Not that high pitched, but Uk native and super-staccato. Nah, every NZ schoolkid knows magpies say [Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle](http://nzpoems.blogspot.co.nz/2011/04/magpies-denis-glover.html) I never realised they’re a totally different family to the [European magpies.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_magpie) ---
**Author:** ![Harakeke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bbce88/32.png) [@Harakeke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harakeke)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/12 "2017-06-19T04:47:08Z")
Ha! I think it is a European magpie! In NZ we have Australian magpies which as said by Lisiate sound nothing like a European magpie, and are not related. I didn’t know either that they were 2 different species. So thanks all. Now I can think (briefly) every time I hear it on an English tv programme that I know what it is… ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/13 "2017-06-19T07:08:34Z")
The Japanese version appears to be cicadas. The American western film version is a red-tailed hawk. Even if an eagle is shown on screen. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staccato-bird-call-on-uk-dramas/789266/14 "2017-06-19T08:44:39Z")
Tropical jungles in frica or South America seem to have a lot more kookaburras than you might realistically expect.