March 15, 2026
The Big Dead-Fish Clean-Up
A huge thank you to the volunteers who pitched in yesterday to remove all those dead fish from the Celery…
Nature Done Wright
Incorporating the Celery Farm and Screech Owl Companion blogs
September 12, 2019
Can You Help I.D. This Bird Song?
Valerie Knipping writes:
Could you please help me identify this singer?
On Sunday I was at the North Beach at Sandy Hook. In the shrubbery near the exit to the parking lot I heard the singer.
The bird would sing 5 to7 repetitions then a 2 second pause then would continue this pattern for about a minute with a long pause and then begin the set again.
It would sing at the top of a cedar tree moving from the spread out cedars amongst the shrubs and plants from time to time.
Once I saw it fly but due to sun glare and a quick flight best I could see what appeared to be a somewhat dark bird smallish size sparrow perhaps but looked like longer wings.
Thanks for any suggestions or answers.
3 comments
-
so i called in reinforcements because this was driving me batty. ???
i invited some folks in a birding group on facebook to check out this post to see if we could get an id. a few tried but couldn’t get the sound file to work. everyone who succeeded in getting the file to work (4 birders) identified the bird as a white-eyed vireo. 🙂
thanks for the adventure. learned something new! -
Thank you for all the time you spent helping me identify the Sandy Hook singer.
Unfortunately, the 3 flycatcher species songs don’t match.
I compared the songs of the species that you mentioned from xeno-canto.org which is another good source for song bird identification.
I’m grateful for your efforts.
If you have any other ideas I’m a willing listener!
Val -
I’m listening on not the best speakers in the world, and the recording is also a little quiet – but – I would suggest checking out sound files for the following flycatchers: the Traill’s flycatchers (Willow and Alder), and Acadian Flycatcher. It sounded a lot like a Willow to me, but then, of the three species, Willow is the one I have the most experience with, and it didn’t sound absolutely perfect to me, almost a little too musical. Again, not the best speakers though. But that’s why I branched out, checked out, and included the other two. There are lots of people who have more experience with Alder and Acadian who might have a better idea (and have a lot more experience birding Sandy Hook during fall migration) who could easily rule them out.
Of those 3 species, the most likely is Willow anyway, looking at eBird data for Sandy Hook, so there’s that. Acadian and Alder in the fall at Sandy Hook are quite unlikely. 🙂
One great online source for listening to sound files of birds is Cornell’s allaboutbirds.org.
Leave your comment
Related Post
March 14, 2026
Massive Fish Die-off @ Celery Farm
A huge thank you to the volunteers who pitched in today to remove all those dead fish from the Celery…
March 12, 2026
Horned Grebe at the Celery Farm
My first ever here. And the spring arrivals are arriving! The grebe was No. 186 on my Celery Farm life…
March 5, 2026
The Sky’s the Limit for This Birder
Fewer than 500 people worldwide have reported seeing this African bird – a blue-moustached bee-eater. Photo by Marc Chelemer By…
3 comments
julie
so i called in reinforcements because this was driving me batty. ???
i invited some folks in a birding group on facebook to check out this post to see if we could get an id. a few tried but couldn’t get the sound file to work. everyone who succeeded in getting the file to work (4 birders) identified the bird as a white-eyed vireo. 🙂
thanks for the adventure. learned something new!
Val
Thank you for all the time you spent helping me identify the Sandy Hook singer.
Unfortunately, the 3 flycatcher species songs don’t match.
I compared the songs of the species that you mentioned from xeno-canto.org which is another good source for song bird identification.
I’m grateful for your efforts.
If you have any other ideas I’m a willing listener!
Val
julie
I’m listening on not the best speakers in the world, and the recording is also a little quiet – but – I would suggest checking out sound files for the following flycatchers: the Traill’s flycatchers (Willow and Alder), and Acadian Flycatcher. It sounded a lot like a Willow to me, but then, of the three species, Willow is the one I have the most experience with, and it didn’t sound absolutely perfect to me, almost a little too musical. Again, not the best speakers though. But that’s why I branched out, checked out, and included the other two. There are lots of people who have more experience with Alder and Acadian who might have a better idea (and have a lot more experience birding Sandy Hook during fall migration) who could easily rule them out.
Of those 3 species, the most likely is Willow anyway, looking at eBird data for Sandy Hook, so there’s that. Acadian and Alder in the fall at Sandy Hook are quite unlikely. 🙂
One great online source for listening to sound files of birds is Cornell’s allaboutbirds.org.