Expert: Roger Lederer - 10/20/2007

Question
Dear Roger,
 I’m hoping you can help me identify a bird. I heard its song but could not sight it in the pine tree along side the trail I was walking on (Fanno Creek trail in Tigart, Oregon, near Portland on October 12). Between periods of several minutes of silence, it would repeat its melodic song. When I got home I found the notes on my piano. Three eighth-notes followed by a quarter-note were as follows: the second F above middle C, the B flat above that which slurs up to the F above that, and finally the lower F again. That is,
          Low F, B flat, High F, Low F.
The song was melodic (as if in the key of B flat) and flute-like. I’m not 100% sure about the F as the starting note, but the important thing is the melody which is manifest from my description above. Thanks, Leon Weill


Answer
Interesting question and nicely put. I asked my wife to play these notes on a piano but nothing obvious struck me. Thrush calls are very often described as flute-like and no other birds are described that way. So if it was flute-like it was some kind of thrush and a wild guess might be Hermit or Swainson's Thrush but their calls don't exactly match your description. I'm not sure, but I think I'm close.