Can anyone identify this night-peeping bird? (2 Viewers)

[fmoore28]

Update from Yale-Peabody Herpatology Expert

Hello! I sent the recordings from this thread to Gregory Watkins-Colwell, Collection Manager, Herpetology and Ichthyology, in the Division of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale-Peabody, and he confirmed that it is, in fact, a spring peeper. Here was his response to my email (and attached as a screen shot):
"Yup. That’s a spring peeper. After the breeding season the males will continue to call occasionally as territorial calls from shrubs and trees, especially when it rains. I’ve heard them throughout the summer, sometimes even in daylight (usually afternoon). One rainy New Year’s day a few years ago I heard them.

It seems odd to hear something called a SPRING peeper in October, but totally normal so long as they don’t actually start breeding this time of year."

I didn't think it was a peeper either, but the herpatology expert thinks it might be! Hope this helps!

 

[The Bird Nuts]

Wow, this thread was started eight years ago! |^|

Yes, Spring Peepers absolutely do call in the summer and fall and during the daytime. I call them "Fall Squeakers" as they often sound a little different at this time of year.

 

[Owen Krout]

Wow, eight years, now that is persistence! I like the 'Spring' Peeper for this also. I grew up in south-central Pennsylvania and remember hearing this up until the frost. Also it is definitively not the Little Owl initially suggested. We have had a pair of Little Owl nest within sight of our apartment for the last three years and I hear them every night until the young are strong enough to leave. They have a much slower paced and 'wheezier' call. As suggested, not so urgent.

 

[Icarus7ac]

Greetings, all! Posting again after almost exactly 2 years to update my experience with this unknown critter. For the record, I promise I'm not up to any shenanigans and I originally found this site exactly like so many others: by Googling, "bird that sounds like spring peeper".

So, the update: last week I was moving some old things on the front porch and discovered a Spring Peeper staring at me. I didn't think anything about it until yesterday (only a few hours before Tropical Storm Michael hit my area, if that is relevant) when I heard peeping from that same front porch. I'm familiar with the sound of the Spring Peepers, of course, but only when in chorus - by the thousands that are in what I call "the swamp" behind my house.

When I heard the sound yesterday, I went out on the front porch, but didn't find the source. I'd expected to see a bird fly out of the nearby bushes or trees. Then I remembered the little frog from last week and told my husband that the little guy was peeping all by himself. Which I found odd, but when I put 2 and 2 together (frog on porch last week + peeping yesterday) what else could it be but the Spring Peeper?

I recently received a promotional Email from Bird Forum which made me wonder why I'd joined. And that brings me back to this posting. (See how that works, y'all?)

Funny, the timing: that I received that Email and checked out this site the very day after I'd had another experience with this mystery animal. The first time I'd heard the sound (in 2016) I was convinced it was a bird because I'd seen them in the area at the time. This time around, I realized it was the Spring Peeper, for the same reason.

It must have been a coincidence in 2016 that I saw birds moving about in the darkness in the same location where I was hearing (what I'm now convinced was) a Spring Peeper. And wrongly attributed the sound to a mystery bird.

Or ... is it a coincidence that I saw a Spring Peeper last week and I'm wrongly attributing yesterday's sound to that little frog? I do believe I may have muddied the waters when I was trying to shed some light. Hmm.

 

[Seebirdee]

peeping bird

Hi
With all due respect, working as a naturalist for the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, and after years of maintaining a backyard pond specifically for frogs, as well as living at the edge of a large marshy area, I intimately know
spring peepers as well as other frogs & while this indeed does resemble a spring peeper, it's not. This bird flew, as I watched and heard, from one side of our back-yard to the other. Sincerely -
Dennis

 

[Tinka]

HI
This bird (attached MP3) has been "peeping" up
a storm all-NIGHT-long, non-stop (except when it
darts from tree to tree) for the past two nights.
It's very loud. So far have not been able to get
a glimpse of it. I SHOULD know what it is,
but don't. I live in the woods, near the northern tip
of Michigan's lower peninsula, about 9 miles from
Lake Huron, within sight of large Mullett Lake.
THANKS!

Same here in Cadillac Michigan.

 

[Tinka]

Found this forum while trying to figure out what was peeping up here in the UP. Using the Cornell Merlin app and the Audobon website, I believe we are hearing a Sora.
Sora

They live near marshes(check), peep at night(check) and appear to be weak fliers(check). Note that they appear to be weak fliers but still migrate. Compare it to the call Cornell has for the chirp.

 

[Tinka]

I've lived in Michigan for over 40 years including south central and northern lower Michigan where we have been currently residing for the last 13 years. I love all forms of wild life, especially birds, however I do not consider myself a bird expert. That being said, I have never heard of a Soro. Nor do we live anywhere near a marsh. Our subdivision is heavily wooded with many nocturnal creatures. The chirping my husband and I hear may indeed be some sort of amphibian as some of the Michiganders here have speculated. The original post with the MP3 audio is exactly what we have been hearing off and on. Interestingly it's only been occurring since mid August and not in the late Spring or early to mid Summer months.

 

[KC Foggin]

Wow, this thread was started eight years ago! |^|

I think you mean 3 years ago The Birds Nut

 

[Tinka]

I think you mean 3 years ago The Birds Nut

I came across this site after Googling for information on the night "peepers."

 

[Wyatt Cnoepp]

I have this exact sound happening every night and throughout the day. It started about 2 weeks ago. It flies from one side of the yard clear across to the other side and spends time "peeping" at each location. We can hear it through closed windows. I'm going crazy wishing I knew what kind of bird this is.

 

[WBlizman]

I have this exact sound happening every night and throughout the day. It started about 2 weeks ago. It flies from one side of the yard clear across to the other side and spends time "peeping" at each location. We can hear it through closed windows. I'm going crazy wishing I knew what kind of bird this is.

I have heard this same peeping sound day and night from various parts of my yard since the Summer. I have followed the sound into the woods around my home but despite searching vigilantly I cannot find the source. I have heard it coming from my front bushes and was able to see some fluttering deep in this bush so I know it was a bird. I never saw it leave although I waited patiently

 

[Wyatt Cnoepp1957]

Found this reference during a browser search. Still hoping for an identification of this bird. We have the same one here at our house in the woods. It flies from one place to another and calls from each location. The call starts in the evening and goes all night.When it's near the side of the house by our living room we can hear it through the windows. Then it flies elsewhere and we can hear it in the distance. Hoping this post of mine might give this a bump and that someone could ID it for us.

 

[shaluminati]

In Staten Island, NY. Been going on a few days now. Pretty suburban area, no real marshes or swamps in the immediate area. But I'm almost certain it's a spring peeper after watching a YouTube video of a single spring peeper.

 

[Rael VeraJoy]

Has anyone identified this peeping winged one yet? It peeps all day and all night. I live in Michigan on a pond on a 45 acre parcel and have been searching for a few days now and nothing. How very strange that I have not or anyone that I can see on this forum has identified it yet.

 

[Rael VeraJoy]

Here is the explanation of the so called "spring peeper" that most definitely does peep in the fall as well.
As I listened more carefully, I realized it was in fact not a bird (or a plane) but an amphibian making that noise. The sleigh bell-like chorus of the Spring Peeper is one of our favorite harbingers of spring. But a Fall Peeper? What’s up with that? Turns out the somewhat misleadingly named Spring Peeper will peep well into fall, especially when the weather’s warm.

The tiny frogs won’t gather in a chorus as they do when they’re primed to mate. This time of year, the peeper disperses from the home range it established in spring to look for places to hibernate. According to Maine Amphibians and Reptiles (my bible for frogs, snakes, and turtles in this state), the Spring Peeper will travel up to 1000 yards from its home territory now. That doesn’t seem all that far to us, but for a frog that’s only an inch long, that distance must feel like a cross-country trek.

 

[Rael VeraJoy]

The peeper’s fall quest results in it finding shelter for the winter under bark or fallen leaves and trees