• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Help me identify Singapore's second more annoying bird (2 Viewers)

orcsab

New member
Hi everyone,

We all know the Asian Koel takes the prize as Singapore's Most Annoying Bird thanks to its stentorian cry as early as 5am. But there is another nearly-as-annoying bird that is unknown to me. A bird that is nearly as loud and just as likely to wake you up early in the day.

I'd like to know the name of this bird. But I'm at a loss as to how to describe it since I've never seen it. I can only say that it makes a loud, ascending whooping sound. About 4-6 whoops in succession raising in volume and tone, with the last few settling on its highest pitch:

whoop Whoop WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP!

I've been Googling bird calls and everything comes up Asian Koel. I've never seen this bird I'm hearing so I don't know what it looks like. But it is a pretty common sound in wooded areas or even the parks in Singapore's city center.

Anyone have any guesses I can investigate with YouTube videos?

Thanks!
 
First off thank you so much for the quick reply. I'm quite interested in knowing more about the birds around me.

OK so it looks like I didn't do enough research. This is the call that is very common in my neighborhood. And by neighborhood, I mean the tree next to my bedroom window. I call this call, "shut the f up its 6am":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGPBt39-Rls

But with barely any more research, I found this alternative call as you call it. I call this one, "for the love of god I'm trying to sleep here":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcyKnF5FDmc

Although I think this particular recording is a little more "whistly" and less "whoopy" than what I'm hearing regularly. But it's certainly close enough for me to blame the koel for both of these behaviors.

Might you be able to tell me more about my new nemesis, the asian koel? I'm curious why I've never heard these two calls coming from one bird. They were always separate enough for me to assume they were two birds. Do they mean different things? Are they used in different circumstances or is it a mystery? Or possibly are the two birds in the above video actually different in some way? I know the female sounds much different than these two.

Thanks again!
 
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top