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Hi all, the last 2 nights we have had a new bird in our garden, we haven't been able to see it yet, but we can certainly hear it, it seems to have at least 10/12 different songs, some sound like telephones, some really short "twit twit twit twit"  - he seems to sing mostly around 5 to 8 o'clock - anyone any ideas what he might be. I'm afraid I only know a Cuckoo's song and a wood pigeon's "take two cows taffy"!  ;D

Its your neighbour playing with his Nokia ringtones ;) ;D ;D ;D

QuoteIts your neighbour playing with his Nokia ringtones

;D ;D ;D ;D LOL

don't know what it is but we have one too, doesn't play a ring tone like a nokia, though  ;D
I look forward to the replies on this one  :)

1st guess I'd say a thrush - not seen or heard many this year at all, but when the weather is good, they like to sing mid to late evening just because they can!  And they have a variety of tunes.  If it is a thrush, more likely to be towards the top of the tree so maybe not .....

It could be a Starling, they are good mimics especially when you mention telephone sounds.  The only bird I hear in full song just now is the Wren.  Blackbirds have gone quiet and the Robin wont get going or September. 

I agree with Carol, and the wren has a surprisingly powerful song for such a tiny little body!

I would agree with Starlings. They are very good at mimicry and are capable of producing a wide range of unusual sounds.

Well, we do have a lot of starlings in our garden, so maybe it is one of them, just seems strange, because we have had the starlings for a while, at least 2 breeding pairs and at least 7 babies - so why has one of them suddenly started this tea-time serenade?

Kathi

Quotetea-time serenade

Is it a nightingale?

Blackbirds are good mimics and I have one that sits up the tree and dials out on his mobile. Many are now copying the bleeps from the car alarms when the remote is pressed.

As for the wren, not a mimic but I always imagine a carpenter hacking a bit of wood with a rusty saw when I hear them.

I was going to say blackbird, too....didn't know that starlings also are good mimics, but 'our' blackbirds mimic car alarms, house alarms, any sort of ruddy alarm really :o.....pity they don't mimic the church bells sometimes ;D

I think maybe a blackbird, he's definately an imitator, car alarms, phone rings etc. - I'm tempted to play a mobile phone tune every night, and see if he mimics it after a while! :)

Kathi

Cor Prink Let me know how you get on. I do at least have blackbirds in the garden.
BTW going to pick yours and Pauline's brains as to what small tree I can plant to try and encourage those elusive finches!!

I have an elderberry growing next to my conifer hedge and the birds love perching on it.   All right, so it's not the most beautiful of trees but it provides berries for the birds and it is very quick growing.   It doesn't grow too big and doesn't suffer from being hard pruned if you want to keep it a certain size though it may limit the number of berries that you get.   As well as the common elder, they come in several named varieties including some with black leaves, others with golden leaves and some with blue fruits.  You could of course make elderflower or elderberry wine.......hic, but then the birds might have something to say about that.   :(

An alternative could be a flowering cherry or a fruit tree but you wouldn't want one that grows too big.   They would not be as quick growing as the elder though and could be expensive if you bought a large one from a nursery.    :-\

Our blackbird is still singing and he does have one strange song that just doesn't sound "organic". From early spring he sang, starting approx 5am, throughout the day and in competition with other similar crooners, until after dark. I can't mimick the call or "write it down" but I think once you know a blackbird's song it's easy to recognise. My Dad says "They sing scribble".

there is every chance it could be one of the many parrots that have escaped in britain or that live wild however knowing how clever birds are it is just as like to be one of our indigenous species we truly under estimate the intelligence of bird no matter how small look at budgies for instance

Claudius' wife Agrippina the Younger had a talking 'thrush', while Claudius' son Britannicus and his stepson Nero had 'a starling and also nightingales that were actually trained to speak Greek and Latin, and moreover practiced diligentlyand spoke new phrases every day, in still longer sentences'. This according to Pliny the Elder. I wouldn't put too much trust in the identification of the birds, but they were probably native to the Roman empire.

We were away this weekend, camping, and there was a parrot (a pet) on the site, I'm sure that I could tell the age of the parrot by the type of phone mimicking that he did - very 1980s - sounded like an old Trim Phone!!

Hi Pauline. Thanks for suggestiopns. Sorry haven't replied before....been away since Monday on a few days break.
Hope you are well Lorna.

Quote from: queenfishface on July 17, 2007, 22:17:47
I think once you know a blackbird's song it's easy to recognise. My Dad says "They sing scribble".

THAT'S SO TRUE  ;D

Our resident blackbird does a mean imitation of our landline - usually at about 4am  ::) Getting used to it now though.

And we used to have a budgie that imitated the trim-phone in the 80's. Damned thing  ::) The number of times .... UP AND DOWN THE STAIRS ....

It was nasty as well. Escaped in the end. I shed no tears.