Birds heard but never seen

[Edward]

Which birds have you heard well enough to identify but despite your best efforts never actually seen? if you are a lister do you tick such birds? I don't personally but it makes me all the more determined to get back there and try again.

I have three that come to mind

1) Quail (Coturnix coturnix) - Seemingly in every field in Spain but despite watching and waiting didn't see a thing.

2) Dupont's Lark (Chersophilus duponti) - found a good site in Spain for this notoriously elusive species and heard them very clearly in the low scrub all around but again no sighting.

3) Eastern Whipbird (Psophodes olivaceus) - Heard this incredible sounding bird very often in Queensland but as I was birding on my own it was days and days before I worked out even what species it was (by looking through my field guide and matching the sound to the description - later confirmed by an Aussie birder). There were tons of other birds in Australian forests which I heard but just hadn't a clue what they were.

E

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Edward,

Four birds I heard before ever seeing:
Quail
Spotted Crake
Corn Crake
Golden Oriole

I've seen them all now, though for Northumberland still got Corn Crake on the heard only list (seen one on Iona, Scotland), and Golden Oriole not at all in Northumbs

First seen Quail was when one of our bird club members who is also a farmer, started giving people rides on his combine harvester! They look like all-brown Little Auks in flight - strikingly similar shape.

Michael

[andythomas]

Quail and Golden Oriole for me too, still haven't seen either.

Also heard Wryneck in Mallorca a couple of times without seeing it.

The Quail was exciting though as it was the first one in the county (West Midlands) for a couple of years and I was on my own when I heard it. Still waiting to hear what the county recorder made of my (very brief) description.

--
Andy

[Goshawk]

The few that spring to mind are:-

Quail, in Spain, Portugal and England before I nearly trod on one at Alvor on the Algarve.

Lesser spotted Woodpecker, in many places. Thankfully I was put onto a very good site (which doesn't hold them anymore).

Grasshopper Warbler. Infuriating bird but I finally caught up with one at an unusual spot - Cemlyn Bay on Anglesey.

Savi's Warbler - another infuriationg bird but finally saw my only one at Minsmere a few years ago.

Penduline Tit. Heard in Greece and Dungeness - still to connect with this bird.

[Edward]

Quail seems to be a common theme here.

Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler were on my heard only list for a couple of years at least (but I only spent c. 10 days in the right areas during those years) but have seen plenty since, even in Iceland where they are both major rarities.

Wryneck was one bird I heard but didn't see in Spain recently but I was lucky enough to see one in Turkey a couple of years ago.

Savi's Warbler is a bird that I've only identified by its song, hearing a buzz coming from a small area of reeds, seeing an LBJ fly to another area of reeds and the same buzz starting up immediately. I ticked that one!

And how I dream of even hearing a Golden Oriole!!

E

[Charles Harper]

Sure they're on the lifelist-- with an (H) notation of course-- if there's no doubt. All three scops owls here are on the list with that disclaimer (Oriental, Collared and Ryukyu). I'll be damned if I'll wait till I see them (though I'd like to)-- I'll likely die first.

Edward, I saw my first E. Whipbirds before I heard them-- they were all over the lawn like thrushes at Chambers Rainforest Lodge at Lake Eacham-- a great place to stay if you're birding on the Atherton Tableland.

[Goshawk]

Edward

One day, if you get to hear the Golden Orioles you will catch your breath at their wonderful fluting sound, especially if you are in a wood in the depths of a valley. The sound echoes everywhere. Beautiful.

I had forgotten Scops Owl. I heard the sound many times over the years before one set up residence outside of a hotel I was staying at.

Personally I place birds heard on my list as heard only but never count them until seen.

[James]

I think it is more reasonable to accept a bird on distinct call e.g. quail than it is to try to disturb it just for a sighting. My wife once stood on a quail which flew out from under her foot (thanks Jeannine - now on our Cyprus list!) It would probably have stayed unseen if she had stepped 6 inches either side. In the UK I would like to see one but not at the cost of flogging it up!!!
p.s. I have been lucky enough to see Corncrake in England but again would not have tried to make it fly if it had not volunteered.
The birds welfare comes first!

James

[oldsquaw]

Boreal Owl is my only heard bird. Not counted, but noted. Van

[HokkaidoStu]

Like a lot of posters I have only heard Quail. I can add another to the list-Grasshopper warbler ( Skye last year ). Oh and I've only ever heard Water Rail too.........

Eastern Whipbird is another almost on the list. I lived for a while in North Queensland ( near lake Eacham , Charles ) and camped a lot in the rainforest-never saw one clearly but heard them pretty much every day.

There's a bird here in Japan that's very well known for its distinctive call. The Japanese Bush Warbler can be heard pretty much everywhere where there are trees but are almost impossible to see ( my only decent views have been in early spring when there's no foliage).

[ericbirdman]

I don't count a bird till I've seen it, but I find that once you can identify its sound, for me at least, they're easy to find. Once I've seen it once, I'll count heard birds toward my year list.
A bird I've heard and never seen...Yellow-Billed Cuckoo.

[Harry Hussey]

Hi all,
Have seen Quail and Golden Oriole,but have never heard either!
Have heard Tree Pipit in Ireland as a flyover,but never saw the bird(didn't tick it).
Harry H

[aclewes]

Hi all

Finally saw Marsh Warbler this year having previously only heard one back in 1997. Only other bird I heard before I saw was Corncrake having heard one in 2000 and then seeing one in 2002.

Alan

[Charles Harper]

Hey, Stu-- got a place for a birdbath? My local JB Warbler comes in just at dusk and sings as he bathes. Just outside the window, his song at that range almost requires earplugs!

[dennis]

I have two on my list...

Black Rail, which I will probably see someday and White-throated Crake, which I won't hold my breath on.

dennis

[Katy Penland]

Like Charles, I do list heard birds if I'm positive of the ID and mark it with "H."

However, if you didn't count birdcalls as IDs for survey work, you'd miss all Empidonax flycatchers and most warblers; the former are indistinguishable by sight in the field and the warblers are hardly ever even seen in heavy canopy.

Another however for me personally is when I'm birding in a new place, like overseas, where I either have no idea of the calls or am just not familiar enough to be comfortable, then nothing gets counted unless I see it. I know I've missed dozens of birds by not knowing the calls, but heck, SEEing them is more than half the pleasure of birding anyway. :-)

Katy

[phyllosc]

Quail and Corncrake for me too. I've stood within 2 meters of a calling Corncrake and still couldn't see it and heard Quail in lots of places, at home and abroad.

Euro Scops Owl is another. The gen I got for a trip to France in 1981 (my first trip abroad) claimed for one site: 'Theres a Scops Owl in every f*ck*ng Plain Tree!' It was right but I still couldn't see one.

Desert Eagle Owl in Israel in '98 - I'm told it might be split from the regular EO

Its not all bad news though, I eventually saw Sri Lankan Frogmouth this January in the Backwoods Camp in Goa after only hearing them in '99.

Dave

[Michael Frankis]

For those who haven't seen Quail yet - I'd strongly recommend hitching a ride on a combine harvester, if you can find a willing farmer with quail in his crops

Michael

[Edward]

It's a bit unsporting though Michael!!

Dave, I was given the tip of taking a powerful torch to Spain to see Scops Owl. It worked a treat!

E

[StevieEvans]

Spotted Crake & Savi's Warbler both have an " H " against them on my UK list.

(only seen Quail twice in uk, 1 was flushed by my dog, the other was perched on top of straw bales in the field.... probably looking for its brood, or bits of them at least...)

S

[Michael Frankis]

Originally posted by Edward
It's a bit unsporting though Michael!!

Dave, I was given the tip of taking a powerful torch to Spain to see Scops Owl. It worked a treat!

E

Hi Edward,

Sounds just as unsporting ;)

[Edward]

Hahaha, touché!!

[phyllosc]

Stevie

I'll swap you either a Savis or a Spot Crake (I've seen both, several times) for one of your Quails!

Dave

[Edward]

Bidding for ticks. This could get interesting.

Stevie, I'll match Dave's offer of a Savi's for a Quail, and I'll throw in one of the two Scops Owls I saw in Spain.
over to you Dave to up the offer

Going once....going twice.....

E

[Michael Frankis]

I see a new thread here - Swap your Ticks . . .

What am I bid for 15 excellent ticks Ixodes ricinus from Kyloe Woods, Northumberland? I'll willingly give all of them away :-O

Michael

[phyllosc]

Michael

If I knew what Ixodes ricinus is/was I'd be able to make a comment!

What I've got to swap, all British sightings: 1 Snowy Owl, 1 American Redstart, 1 Little Crake, 3 Socialable Plovers, 1 Desert & 2 Pied Wheatear.

What I need: Cory's and Great, Nutcracker, Colared Fly, Desert Warbler.

Any offers?

Dave

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Dave,

Ixodes ricinus is a tick for everyone - and still is, however many times they've had it before . . . but it isn't a tick you'll greatly enjoy . .

Michael

[HokkaidoStu]

I guess you mean the little bloodsucking insect?

I've been ticked 3 times-in Bavaria and Australia. In Bavaria the little bast*rds carry a nasty disease that is potentially fatal and I had to go to the doctor to get a shot. The little bast*rd crawled up my leg and resided in my groin. One of its friends found its way into my boot and reside between my toes. My ex-girlfriend had the dubious pleasure of extracting them with tweezers. NO WAY was she using a lighter to burn it off......at least not the first one.

In Australia one was crawling up my arm but I manged to squish it before it attached itself.

I hate ticks.

[Charles Harper]

You're an acarophobe, Stu.

[Edward]

Charles,

What's happened to your avatar? You've aged overnight! Have you entered some kind of Dorian Grey pact?

E

[Charles Harper]

It's birdforum what's aged me, mate.

[HokkaidoStu]

You look kinda scary.....like one of those guys on "Reservoir Dogs".........

[phyllosc]

Mr Beige!

[phyllosc]

I'm surprised Ixodes ricinus and I haven't met before. I was Chiggered heavily in Costa Rica and I'm a running buffet for every mosquito known to science.

Dave

[marcus]

I've heard the 'teacher-teacher' call of an Ovenbird, but never saw one.

[Mark D]

Hi all,

On a trip to Ecuador we were actively encouraged to tick every species of Tapaculo we heard as they are (in my experience) the hardest genus to track down and actually see.
As with Charles I mark down heard birds but I don't count them on my life list. Also won't year tick them unless they are not a lifer.
I for one have seen more Quail than I've heard (sorry to grip some of you off), though my only local patch one remains a heard only.

Mark

[Larry Lade]

Like Dennis in Pennsyvania, I heard the Black Rail calling repeatedly but never got a look at it. There were four of us birding Quivera National Wildlife Refuge in west central Kansas in May 2003. We had the "little guy" surrounded in a heavily vegetated, wet ditch. We closed in on it to within about one meter but the bird was not to be seen

[Jane Turner]

I heard a Red-throated pipit three times a few weeks back. Unfortunately it was stratospheric and I failed to lay bins on it.

I also once took 8 minutes to locate a similarly high Bee-eater that I could hear but not see! I thought I wasn't going to find it!

[Stephen Dunstan]

On a slightly different note I was in a bird race team which (against my better judgement) ticked a drumming Great Spotted Woodpekcer on a bird race, and went on to win by one species. We didn't see the bird, and we didn't hear it call!

I see Jane has moved up to 45 posts, I am feeling positively pedestrian!

[Edward]

Fly-by Bee-eaters can be extremely difficult to find as their calls seem to carry so far. Where were you Jane when you heard it? If I heard but didn't see a Bee-eater in Spain I wouldn't be too worried. If this happened in Iceland (one record of Bee-eater) I'd be panic stricken!

E

[Birdingam]

Yep, like some of you others I don't count a bird until I've seen them. Fly by Bee-eaters I would agree are hard to see especially on migration as they fly so high.

However, here are some birds I've heard but never seen for the list:
Cinereous Tinamou, Little Tinamou, Dark-breasted Wood-Quail, Grey-breasted Crake, White-throated Crake, Castelnau's Antshrike, Rufous-breasted Antthrush, Moustached Antpitta, White-bellied Antpitta, Unicolored Tapaculo, Ocellated Tapaculo and Southern Nightingale-wren to name but a few.

Got Quail, trod on one in Crete, and Corncrake, saw these in Cornwall England many many years ago, back in the "60's" I seem to recall before they became seriously rare in the Uk. A whole family party walking down a narrow country lane in front of me.

Andy

[Edward]

I'm guessing you've been birding in South America then Andy! How did you know that it was these species that you heard as I have enough difficulty remembering European bird calls, let alone memorising how to separate Unicoloured and Ocellated Tapaculo on voice? I presume you had a good guide!

E

[Birdingam]

Yes indeed Edward, these were all heard and remained unseen in Ecuador last November.

I did have an excellent guide who used tape lures to help us to see birds. I don't really approve of using them but if you want to see Antbirds, Tapaculos and Pittas they are probably the only way.

Andy

[Andrew]

A bit of a late entry from me. As many of you will know, I don't have that problem. I can't hear a thing so all my birds are seen. Quite convenient really. (I'd love to hear them though!!!)

[Jane Turner]

It was in the UK and I was panicking for sure!

Phyllosc I can offer 3 Desert warblers, one of which I saw every day for nearly three weeks..I think that is two more than strictly necessary. I'll swap one for your American Redstart

[Rufus]

Around here Little Grassbird (Megalurus gramineus) is much easier heard than seen. It has one of those plaintive, fade-in, fade-out calls that are hard to locate. And it stays in the reeds a lot in any case.

It was ages before I saw one. One was calling among a few reeds on the edge of a small farm dam. It had to appear sooner or later, and (after about three-quarters of an hour!) it did.

[Fulmar]

Some people have fun playing tapes and staying well hidden ;)

Peter

[sparky77]

Hi all,

Nothing on my list now that I have heard but never seen, although water rail gave me a problem for a couple of years!

In Ireland, some people will "yeartick" a bird they have heard, but will not put it on their life list till they see it.

Sparky.

[Michael Frankis]

Some people have fun playing tapes and staying well hidden ;)

Peter
Hi Peter,

I was once on a birdclub trip looking for Nightjars, I started imitating the song to try and attract one. Instead, it attracted another group of birders with a Nightjar tape! No Nightjars though (it was cold windy night)

Michael

[Tim Allwood]

I spent almost two hours whistling in a Garnet Pitta in Malaysia. It kept getting closer and closer until it was round the back of an extremely large tree. I tentatively edged round the tree only to be confronted with a guy on his hands and knees whistling like a Garnet Pitta!!!

Since then I have been very good friends with the 'pitta' (or Dave as I know him now) and we go out birding alot. He recently put me up for seven weeks in Peru almost free of charge! so after the initial disapp ointment he was probably my best tick that trip.

We did get Garnet later but spent the best part of a day looking for Malaysian Rail Babbler. It was calling within feet of us for ages but we couldn't get onto it. It drove us mental. Still never seen one.....

[erik]

I put only-heard birds on my list with (audio) written behind it.

Examples: Corn Crake, they breed near my house in a quite large number, Golden Oriole, and stupidly sadly enough the regular cuckoo, which i heard a zillion times but never saw one!!!

[Jane Turner]

Just remembered a bad day at the office. About 20 years ago, in May I heard (from about 2 miles away) this amazing song. Somewhere between a Mistle Thrush and a Blackcap, delivered at an astounding volume with a lot of variation.

I watched the singing bush (a 20ft square patch of inpenetrable blackthorn) all day and eventually it went quiet. I never saw a bird. I drew up a list of possible contenders and have ruled all but one out since. Not Thrush Nightingale...Not Melodious Warbler...not Bluethroat...just leaves Orphean Warbler :(

[Tim Allwood]

wet n horrible here. tried a couple of hours this morning on coast but got washed out.
:-C anyway

not quite ruled out all but one Jane.....

eastern or western? :h?:

[Jane Turner]

Sounded more like Western! Unfortunately napalm would have been the only way to see it!

At the time I thought it ws most likely Thrush Nightingale, but I heard a few since and it wasn't

[Bluetail]

It happened to the twentieth-century French composer Olivier Messiaen.

Messiaen was a keen amateur birder. He used to record birdsong, meticulously transcribe it into musical notation and incorporate it into his compositions. The list of species so honoured is a long one and by no means restricted to French birds.

In the seventh movement of his "Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité", he quotes a song he heard in Iran. In the prefatory notes to the movement he describes it this way:

"Then there is a bird of ruins and crags - but which one? I heard its song without seeing it, among the growing shadows and the red and gold reflections of the setting sun. Having been unable to see the bird, and hearing its magnificent song for the first time, I have called it "The Bird of Persepolis"".

The rhythm is four rapid notes (the third distinctly lower than the others) given twice - pause - the same repeated phrase again - pause - then a rapid warbler-like roulade (might almost be Blackcap) - tiny gap - two quick rising notes.

I once posted the above on uk.rec.birdwatching and got a reply from Malcolm Ogilvie suggesting that it would be worth checking out the Middle Eastern wheatears. However, the limited checking I've been able to do hasn't yet turned up ahything likely (Isabelline Wheatear is the nearest I've got - but it's not very near).

Does anyone have any theories as to what the bird might have been? In case any of you are good at reading music, I'm attaching a pdf of the phrase (hope it's not too big to upload; it will probably need rotating 90 degrees clockwise).

Jason

[Surreybirder]

The only birds I can think of that I'm certain I've heard but not seen are scops owl and quail. There was a warbler (Connecticut, I think) that a local friend said he could hear in Regina but I couldn't see.
I didn't see a Morepork in NZ, though I heard several, but I think it's the same species as southern boobook which I saw in Adelaide.
Of course I've heard masses of birds that I had no clue what they were! I don't count them on my life list if I've not seen them. But I would count them for survey work, of course.
I was very lucky with Savi's warbler as I heard one in very thin cover in a ditch in Cyprus and was able to watch it from a few feet away. Some birds seem to be less retiring in India (and no doubt elsewhere), so I saw several golden orioles there.
I've also had quite a few sightings of birds that I couldn't ID--some after reasonable views and even after taking fairly complete notes.

[Dave B Smith]

Surreybirder,

"I've also had quite a few sightings of birds that I couldn't ID--some after reasonable views and even after taking fairly complete notes."

That could make for another thread - Birds seen but never identified. I can add a few to that list also!

[Surreybirder]

Problem is how to post them, Dave. My field notes would be hard to post.
But it would certainly be interesting.

[Rufino]

Hi everyone!

Do you have some information about ocellated quail? I'll be glad if you can help me.

[prairiemerlin]

I've heard but not seen Kentucky, Cereulean and Prairie Warblers. I also heard a Sedge Wren once, and even after some pishing and squeaking it would not come out!

[erik]

In the mean time i have seen the cuckoo several times :D

[Motmot]

Thicket Antpitta is the worst for me! Hiper shy and skulky. I can hear them in my small property on Caribbean Costa Rica, have taped them in a few times but NADA, they sometimes get closer and interested but remain frustratingly hidden in thick overgrown areas. Maybe next time.... I need it!
Don't count heard only on my lifelist but of course write them down on my day lists.

[michaelboustead]

Yellow Rail. I have been birding about 5 years and for half that time I wasn't sure that rails really existed.

Mike

[chris3871]

Hi Edward,

Four birds I heard before ever seeing:
Quail
Spotted Crake
Corn Crake
Golden Oriole

I've seen them all now, though for Northumberland still got Corn Crake on the heard only list (seen one on Iona, Scotland), and Golden Oriole not at all in Northumbs

First seen Quail was when one of our bird club members who is also a farmer, started giving people rides on his combine harvester! They look like all-brown Little Auks in flight - strikingly similar shape.

Michael

My dads a farmer and I've spent all Summer working by the combine looking for Quail. No such luck. Heard them a couple of times.

[Tero]

Grouse, I guessed. I don't count heard birds unless someone else can confirm it.

[brianfm]

On a trip to Poland I am sure I almost held hands with a Corncrake in tall grass but never did see it! Brian.

[Alastair Rae]

Hazel Grouse - irritatingly directionless thin whistle.

[James Lowther]

The only birds i have definitely heard which aren't on my (seen) lifelist are quail, scops owl (no surprises there then!) and superb lyrebird ('cos it's just about the only aussie bird i can identify by voice.) Some birds that I've seen but which i've heard FAR more often include tawny owl, cetti's warbler and water rail.

[cfagyal]

Antpittas, antpittas, and more antpittas.

I'd say they, as well as antthrushes and a few tapaculos must be the hardest birds i've found thusfar to see. I have several "heard only" records of several antpittas, but only 2 seen records so far (Ochre-breasted and Tawny). Hearing an Antpitta and seeing it are two completely different things. I've had several encounters where the bird is within 3 or 4 feet, but the underbrush in the forest is so dense and so dark, getting a glimpse is impossible, even after 30+ minutes of patient waiting/searching/etc. I had an Ocellated Tapaculo at Yanacocha in Ecuador last week that absolutely refused to move out of the underbrush behind this moss-covered tree high up a very steep hillside (that we climbed a steep trail along the side of the mountain to get to) that was probably less than 2 feet from myself and my guide. But I still never caught a glimpse at all. My guide got 2 super brief glimpses.

Others that come to mind would be a few of the various crakes. White-throated Crake continues to elude me, though i've heard it many times.

Chris

[David Ball]

Just noticed this thread. In general I don't count 'heard only' birds, and as a previous member of a local rarities panel (Beds), I've occasionally raised the spectre of mimicry over heard only records from other people. The one exception I've made is that I count Quail on my Bedfordshire self-found list though I didn't see any of the birds I've found calling (though I had earlier seen ones found by other birders). For Quail I think the disturbance you have to cause to see a bird is so horrendous (unless the crop has just been cut) that you can’t justify it, and the call and the habitat in which it’s made is so distinctive (there’s hardly going to be a Starling sitting on the ground in the middle of a corn field doing Quail-call).

Seeing Jane Turner’s post about a possible Orphean Warbler in song but not seen reminds me of one of my more frustrating experiences. I was breeding-atlasing in a tiny copse in the extreme north of Bedfordshire (probably 1989 or 1990) when I heard an unfamiliar song coming from the canopy. I’ve got fairly crap hearing and a very poor memory for sounds (most of my birding is visual, though I'm OK with common bird songs provided I keep hearing them regularly!), but this was distinctive enough to grab my attention. The tone was rather Crest-like, but there was more structure to the song, and though the same phrase was continuously repeated, there was more variation in pitch and rhythm than in Goldcrest or Firecrest – at the time I felt it was a bit like a Goldcrest singing a Willow Warbler song, only not the same tune! Thoughts of singing Yellow-browed or Pallas’s Warblers flashed through my mind (though I had no idea what either sounded like), and I desperately tried to see the bird. Unfortunately it was quite late in May and the canopy was well-leafed, and in half an hour I only got a couple of brief glimpses, which just confirmed that the bird was small and bouncing about the canopy at a great rate, never dropping lower. Eventually it shut up, and after waiting around for some time and hearing or seeing nothing more, I gave up and wrote it off as probably a (very) odd Goldcrest song, though I didn't put Goldcrest in the atlas records for that tetrad! I was familiar enough with Goldcrest and Firecrest song, and at the time I don’t think there were any available recordings of any other possibilities. With my lack of memory for sounds there’d be little point in listening to recordings now, so it has to remain as one that got away.