What birds are these?

May 31, 2013 1:51 PM

Today I heard some birds I don't ever recall hearing before. Can you tell me what they are? I'm specifically puzzled by the fainter "bloop-bloop" calls you can hear at like 12 and 18 seconds. These birds were the size of eagles and looked kind of like giant ravens, from what I could see. I live in central Massachusetts. (Please excuse the breathing--I was halfway up a steep hill on my bike when I stopped to record this!)
posted by Camofrog to Science & Nature (14 answers total)

Sounds like crows. The "bloop-bloop" sounds kind of like frogs - you sure it wasn't a frog? Crows do make a lot of other noises than "caw-caw" and could possibly make other sounds like the bloop.
posted by JJ86 at 1:58 PM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I'm positive these same birds were making both sounds, and yes, they do sound like crows, but they were much bigger and I've never heard crows do the blooping sound.
posted by Camofrog at 2:04 PM on May 31, 2013

My money is on fledgling crows or ravens. They are almost as big as adults, but lacking in caw-abilty and self sufficiency. I think they might be asking to be fed, or parented in some way.
posted by lobstah at 2:05 PM on May 31, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I think ravens. Listen to the second link here - the "Croak and deep, gurgling" one. They may be juveniles, who have higher-pitched calls.

Could be crows, but the gurgling "bloop bloop" call is more typical of ravens.

A pedantic note on judging the size of birds not in hand: It's really hard, especially if they're in flight and there's nothing to compare their size to. Bald and golden eagles have about a 7-foot wingspan, which is likely taller that you.
posted by rtha at 2:06 PM on May 31, 2013 [3 favorites]

Shoulda previewed! FWIW, ravens can look HUGE. But they're nowhere as big as eagles.
posted by rtha at 2:07 PM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Hmm, yeah, that "deep, gurgling" clip is pretty damn close, but man did these look a LOT bigger than the ravens we usually get around here.
posted by Camofrog at 2:30 PM on May 31, 2013

Seconding ravens! They ROCK.
posted by Stewriffic at 2:51 PM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

I hear that stuff outside my house EVERY DAY. Yes, ravens.
posted by D.C. at 2:54 PM on May 31, 2013

I often hear such call and response between ravens and their young at this time of year in the Pacific Northwest. The higher pitched call sounds to me like a raven's caw without the characteristic throatiness of maturity. This is pretty much, to the day, the expected time for young ravens to be leaving the nest.
posted by Lorin at 2:56 PM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

Another voice for ravens. I would bet on it.
posted by Hobgoblin at 6:38 PM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I'm really surprised I've never heard that gurgling call before; that's what really threw me. I don't hear a lot of ravens I guess. They're pretty cool. Three or four of them were chatting up a storm.
posted by Camofrog at 10:47 PM on May 31, 2013

Response by poster: Also, ravens get really big. These looked a lot bigger than the local hawks.
posted by Camofrog at 10:51 PM on May 31, 2013

Ravens look really big, but a large female eagle can be almost 5x the weight of the biggest raven.

The loud "rawk!" sounds like a crow. The other sound is definitely a raven.
posted by klanawa at 11:54 PM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

Could they have been Northern ravens? My dad's Canadian, and he told me about ravens in Winnipeg that were much larger than the ones in the US. (My dad is outdoorsy and can definitely tell the difference between a raven and a crow, so it's not that.) Massachusetts is far enough north that there could be some territory overlap.

Ravens have local "dialects", and it's not uncommon for a particular sound to be specific to one small group or family. So maybe these are the only ravens that go "bloop".
posted by Nibbly Fang at 11:41 AM on June 2, 2013