What bird can I hear?

May 25, 2011 6:26 PM

Every night I hear this bird call outside my house at sunset. Do you know what it is?

I live two miles from the Connecticut River in central Vermont. I moved here in December so I don't know local fauna yet. This bird has been making this digital siren sound for about a week, since mid-May.

posted by billtron to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

Best answer: Sounds like a Veery (wikipedia)
posted by davey_darling at 7:01 PM on May 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Cape May Warbler?

A search with attributes (location, habitat, song, song pattern, and size) narrowed it down to 49, and this one was the best match.
posted by fix at 7:11 PM on May 25, 2011

I also think it's a Veery.
posted by pemberkins at 7:17 PM on May 25, 2011

Definitely a veery. And keep listening because one of the great pleasures of summer in the north is the dusk chorus of the veery's cousins, the wood thrush and the hermit thrush.
posted by Jode at 7:54 PM on May 25, 2011

Veery! We have them at my place I think they sound like funny video games.
posted by jessamyn at 8:06 PM on May 25, 2011

Veery! We have them at my place I think they sound like funny video games.

Indeed. The veery is basically a dead pac-man with wings.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:35 PM on May 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thanks for asking this billtron. We'd been wondering too. Turtlegirl calls them the "video game birds"
posted by terrapin at 7:11 AM on May 30, 2011