Birding/Unidentified Bird

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Expert: - 8/5/2011


Question
I have attached a link to a video which plays a bird calling in my brother's backyard in the woods of lower Michigan, near Ann Arbor. The bird left at the end of July, but for a few weeks before that, he sang this song continuously.  No one can identify it! To me, he most sounded like a Townsend's Solitaire, but Michigan is not their territory, and this song on the video is more syncopated, and my brother says the bird never did any other sound but the one you hear on the video - over and over!

If you can't hear the bird, let me know and I will send it to you another way. He stays high in the trees so he was never seen.

http://youtu.be/4UBTOs0bV2Q

Answer
It's hard to be sure as the video sound quality isn't very good and the call/song is only a partial one, but it sounds like the voice of the White-throated Sparrow. You might want to listen to one at http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/white-throated_sparrow/sounds
Definitely not a Townsend's Solitaire. Solitaires are thrushes and sound a bit like Robins.

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Roger Lederer

Expertise

Any and all about WILD birds - the science of ornithology. Information about birdwatching, ecology, conservation, migration, behavior, banding, rehabilitation, feeding, songs, binoculars, identification, and careers in ornithology. No questions about pet or caged birds, please.

Experience

Have a PhD and over forty years as a professional ornithologist - research, teaching, author, speaker, webmaster of Ornithology.com . Have written thirty scientific papers, three bird field guides, a textbook in ecology and two recent books entitled "Amazing Birds" and "Birds of New England". Have traveled to over 90 countries watching birds.

Education/Credentials
PhD in Zoology/Ornithology; Emeritus Professor of Biological Sciences; former Dean of the College of Natural Sciences at California State University, Chico

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