chirp...chirp...chirp

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rumtytum
rumtytum's picture
chirp...chirp...chirp

From late winter/early spring there's a bird in the bush beside our house that starts chirping before dawn and generally before any other birds start calling. Its chirp sounds like a large sparrow but it has a very distinctive pattern that I've heard nowhere else. The chirps come in small groups, with the chirps in each group coming about a second apart. The groups invariably contain either one chirp, two chirps or three chirps, never ever more. There may be a single chirp, then five or six doubles, then a triple, a double, four triples and so on. The pattern seems infinitely variable, though the first chirps of the morning are usually doubles. I've heard this bird during the daytime only twice. It was high in a spotted gum and even with binoculars I couldn't ever manage to see it. We've planted many bird-attracting shrubs and trees and our bird population is enormous, but this one is an absolute mystery. Can anybody suggest what it might be?

Anonymous

whereabouts are you?

rumtytum
rumtytum's picture

We're just south of Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast.

Anonymous

Hmm I live in Tassie so the birds you get probably include a whole lot that don't occur here, so this is pure guesswork!
It COULD be a Spotted Pardalote http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/finder/display.cfm?id=118

They are calling like mad here at the moment - although not JUST at dawn, here they do call during the day.

However, when I first heard them I thought it was a single note call, and now I realise that it's a two note call but one note is much louder than the other. According to the website it's a three note call! So could fit your description possibly. They are also pretty elusive and hard to spot - my mum heard them for years over in Perth before she ever saw one. Also they are tiny birds. If you do see one with binoculars you will recognise it, they are really beautiful I think.

Anonymous

oh forgot to say, they do call late winter/spring here too so that matches your clues.
I am not sure if that is because it is quiet at other times or it moves away.

rumtytum
rumtytum's picture

We have pardalotes here and they behave like little pals. When we first moved here I was amazed to discover that they burrow and felt terrible that their burrow was doomed by our renovations. We kept it clear until the end of the nesting season and they've obviously found other places to nest since they're always around. But I see them during the day and they never chirp the way the early morning bird does. Is it possible that they have a pre-dawn chirp that's totally different from their normal call? I doubt it. The chirp sounds like a sound made by a bigger bird. I would have expected a bird the size of a big sparrow or even a big starling. The chirps are absolutely even in volume, but come in little blocks of one, or two, or three. Never more. As if it's some kind of code.

Anonymous

Hmm I don't think the SP's have other calls than the main ones.
Sorry I'm out of ideas then!

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