What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[Joseph K]

Curious to know what the bird might be in our garden (or in its vicinity) that produces a consistent monotone chirp. Perhaps it could be more than one? Suggestions welcome.

[ardcarp]

Can you expand on the sound a bit, JK? When you say 'consistent' do you mean the pitch is always the same? Is the chirp a long one or a short one?
Meanwhile you can get a book of birds which also has sounds! We have one. Just a quick look online suggests they are changing hands at rather silly prices. We got ours from a charity shop years ago, and it's still going strong.

[Joseph K]

Can you expand on the sound a bit, JK? When you say 'consistent' do you mean the pitch is always the same? Is the chirp a long one or a short one?
Meanwhile you can get a book of birds which also has sounds! We have one. Just a quick look online suggests they are changing hands at rather silly prices. We got ours from a charity shop years ago, and it's still going strong.

Yes the chirp is the same pitch and the same duration. Sometimes I confuse it with my metronome. But you're right I should invest in a book of birds with sounds, rather than relying on this forum!

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes the chirp is the same pitch and the same duration. Sometimes I confuse it with my metronome. But you're right I should invest in a book of birds with sounds, rather than relying on this forum!

Is it relatively high-pitched? Chaffinch ("chink, chink"), Willow/Chiffs (a musical "coo-eet") and Nuthatches (rapid "cooick, cooick" or simply "quick, quick, quick!") all make a repeated one note call interalia. Does it come from within dense vegetation, which suggests a smaller shier bird?

Or does it sound like a bigger bird? From rooftops? Magpies and Jackdaws often call repeatedly with chacks, kews and gutturals... ....
But young Magpies have a very plain repeated "cheep" sound often heard at this time, sometimes with a faint following "chip"... (now there's a temptation to a pun or two...feeling peckish yet?)...

Perhaps try some of those on the RSPB Guide....? But you need more than the song so....hmm....

[Serial_Apologist]

Can you expand on the sound a bit, JK? When you say 'consistent' do you mean the pitch is always the same? Is the chirp a long one or a short one?
Meanwhile you can get a book of birds which also has sounds! We have one. Just a quick look online suggests they are changing hands at rather silly prices. We got ours from a charity shop years ago, and it's still going strong.

But is it still going cheep cheep cheep?

(All right, I'll get my Papageno outfit!)

[Joseph K]

Is it relatively high-pitched? Chaffinch ("chink, chink"), Willow/Chiffs (a musical "coo-eet") and Nuthatches (rapid "cooick, cooick" or simply "quick, quick, quick!") all make a repeated one note call interalia. Does it come from within dense vegetation, which suggests a smaller shier bird?

Or does it sound like a bigger bird? From rooftops? Magpies and Jackdaws often call repeatedly with chacks, kews and gutturals... ....
But young Magpies have a very plain repeated "cheep" sound often heard at this time, sometimes with a faint following "chip"... (now there's a temptation to a pun or two...feeling peckish yet?)...

It doesn't sound like a big bird, so I'm thinking more first paragraph rather than second (except for the young Magpie suggestion) Not sure the bushes and hedges round here could be considered dense, although there is quite a dense and relatively large cluster of trees just up the road...

Thanks for the suggestions...

Perhaps try some of those on the RSPB Guide....? But you need more than the song so....hmm....

[cloughie]

A peacock which has been in the village for a day or three now - paid a visit to our lane this morning.

[gradus]

We've got one as well Cloughie but he's not been making any noise for the last couple of weeks. Apparently he's been around for a couple of years or more but I only heard him this year.

[Joseph K]

Today, I had the pleasure of seeing a bird of prey swoop down into our garden. I couldn't identify it, I'm afraid - with my scant knowledge I'd say some sort of hawk, kite or kestrel. It had quite a fluffy, tatty coat, definite brood patch. Also on my walk I saw a little robin with a brood patch.

[ardcarp]

Sparrow hawks are quite good at swooping/hunting in confined spaces, eg in gardens or between hedgerows in a lane. Mrs A and I had the pleasure of observing one perched for some time on a tree (the bird, that is) and blissfully unaware of us behind a double-glazed window. They are generally rather smart birds...but I dare say they sometimes have a bad hair day....

[Bryn]

Sparrow hawks are quite good at swooping/hunting in confined spaces, eg in gardens or between hedgerows in a lane. Mrs A and I had the pleasure of observing one perched for some time on a tree (the bird, that is) and blissfully unaware of us behind a double-glazed window. They are generally rather smart birds...but I dare say they sometimes have a bad hair day....

Regrettably, a few decades ago, my then next-door neighbour had a sparrow hawk break its neck flying straight at the glass of her newly cleaned upstairs windows. One assumes it must have caught sight of its reflection, a rival flying on collision path with it, and attacked. We live in a fairly heavily wooded area. Well that's my excuse for not ceeping the rear windows in sparkling condition, anyway.

[oddoneout]

Regrettably, a few decades ago, my then next-door neighbour had a sparrow hawk break its neck flying straight at the glass of her newly cleaned upstairs windows. One assumes it must have caught sight of its reflection, a rival flying on collision path with it, and attacked. We live in a fairly heavily wooded area. Well that's my excuse for not ceeping the rear windows in sparkling condition, anyway.

My understanding is that because they can see through the glass they don't perceive it as the solid surface it is, and so try to fly through as if it were empty space, especially if there is a sightline(open door, another window, opposite). Net curtains/window blinds have their uses! If you think about it, humans often do the same thing with large expanses of clear glass, but they don't generally tend to be travelling at speed when they encounter them so the damage is less.
Pigeons flew into my windows sometimes at my previous house - never managed to kill themselves, but used to leave a very persistent dusty imprint like Caspar the little ghost.

[Padraig]

I have never seen the following behaviour before: Firstly, a blackbird that actively seeks out bird seed, and competes on the ground with other small birds and pigeons; the same blackbird going for the suspended feeder, eating from it, and shaking it so that seeds fall out on the ground. This seems to be a young male bird, and is always on its own, that is, with no other blackbirds.

On the other hand a magpie and two young have taken to playing round the house and have appropriated a certain corner of shrubbery in the front garden.

Incidentally, we call young birds in the nest 'scaldies'. When I was a child the worst crime in the book was to rob nests or interfere with scaldies. Needless to say, it was bad boys who did so.

[jayne lee wilson]

My understanding is that because they can see through the glass they don't perceive it as the solid surface it is, and so try to fly through as if it were empty space, especially if there is a sightline(open door, another window, opposite). Net curtains/window blinds have their uses! If you think about it, humans often do the same thing with large expanses of clear glass, but they don't generally tend to be travelling at speed when they encounter them so the damage is less.
Pigeons flew into my windows sometimes at my previous house - never managed to kill themselves, but used to leave a very persistent dusty imprint like Caspar the little ghost.

These can work very well.....

https://shopping.rspb.org.uk/bird-safety-hygiene/swift-and-swallow-window-stickers.html

...several up here (Falcons and Starlings Silhouettes too), definitely reduced the incidence of glass-collision.... but those pigeon imprints can be a wonder, a work of art of feather wing and eye detail....

***
Padraig.... can confirm Blackbirds as frequent ground-seed-feeders, especially in Winter: I lay out food before I go to bed, and the first birds in the first light of Winter are..... Blackbirds.... then Magpies, many Jackdaws..... Pigeons later.

The habits of local bird populations will come to reflect the habits of humans feeding them. They may come to depend on you during late summer moult/Winter. Why d'you think Tits are so successful?

So yes, if there be frequent replenishment of suet pellets or blocks, and enough grip in the feeder structures to allow it, Blackbirds will feed from these, if a little awkwardly with some wing flapping, as much as young Woodpeckers with their scarlet crowns....
Past the peak of breeding season, several Blackbirds are doing this here, now....

That seed fall from dispensers is important too - for Pheasants and Wood Pigeons and much else.... chief joys around here in mid or late summer are the young tits ( Blue, Cole, Great and L-T), all quickly very strong and independent, coming close to rampage through suet and seed.... keeps me busy!
Juvenile Finches seem rarer this year though...

[vinteuil]

My understanding is that because they can see through the glass they don't perceive it as the solid surface it is, and so try to fly through as if it were empty space, especially if there is a sightline(open door, another window, opposite). .

... and one recalls the opening lines of Nabokov's Pale Fire -

"I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff - and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.
And from the inside, too, I'd duplicate
Myself, my lamp, an apple on a plate:
Uncurtaining the night, I'd let dark glass
Hang all the furniture above the grass,
And how delightful when a fall of snow
Covered my glimpse of lawn and reached up so
As to make chair and bed exactly stand
Upon that snow, out in that crystal land! ... "

.