Perth, Australia, bird song ID request (1 Viewer)

[dazvoz]

I heard a bird in the branches overhead in the Darling Scarp, about 25 km east of the CBD of Perth, Western Australia. (09 April 2024, 1530 local time).

Here's a recording.

http://www.dazvoz.com/Bird.m4a

I could catch site of it but its song was a remarkably pure note, always in 3 sets of 12ish toots.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[mjh73]

Western Yellow Robin I reckon

 

[delia todd]

Hi dazvoz and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.

 

[dazvoz]

Thanks for the welcome, delia todd.

mjh73, that seems like a good prospect. It doesn't sound exactly like examples that I can find but I suppose there is some variation. Thank you.

 

[Tom Tarrant]

I heard a bird in the branches overhead in the Darling Scarp, about 25 km east of the CBD of Perth, Western Australia. (09 April 2024, 1530 local time).

Here's a recording.

http://www.dazvoz.com/Bird.m4a

I could catch site of it but its song was a remarkably pure note, always in 3 sets of 12ish toots.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Sounds like a Rosella to me, I often use that call to bring in Pale-headed Rosella here in Brisbane.

 

[mjh73]

Thanks for the welcome, delia todd.

mjh73, that seems like a good prospect. It doesn't sound exactly like examples that I can find but I suppose there is some variation. Thank you.

Pretty much bang on for nominate subspecies of Western Yellow Robin.
Morcombe app (if you have it) has it listed as 'piping whistle' call variant.
Couple of recordings in ebird also a good match.

 

[Tom Tarrant]

Pretty much bang on for nominate subspecies of Western Yellow Robin.
Morcombe app (if you have it) has it listed as 'piping whistle' call variant.
Couple of recordings in ebird also a good match.

XC884504 Western Rosella (Platycercus icterotis)

Birds calling from trees in the caravan park

xeno-canto.org

 

[mjh73]

XC884504 Western Rosella (Platycercus icterotis)

Birds calling from trees in the caravan park

xeno-canto.org

Different pitch and cadence

 

[Tom Tarrant]

I surrender, after consultation with eBird and Xeno-Canto, agree with Western Yellow Robin

 

[mjh73]

No need to surrender @Tom Tarrant , it wasn't a war!
Always happy to have my ID calls tested, and still possible a Western Australian will pop up and correct us both
I've not seen / heard WYRobin or WRosella first hand for years.

 

[Tom Tarrant]

No need to surrender @Tom Tarrant , it wasn't a war!
Always happy to have my ID calls tested, and still possible a Western Australian will pop up and correct us both
I've not seen / heard WYRobin or WRosella first hand for years.

Thanks, have only been to WA once so I need to 'brush-up' soon 😉

 

[dazvoz]

Thank you, Tom.

I think I'm still leaning towards the Western yellow robin idea. This recording here is quite a good match: utterly pure notes, on the spectrogram it shows as a single narrow peak at 2550 Hz, width-at-half amplitude maybe 60 Hz, no discernible harmonics: it was that purity of note that piqued my interest. The Rosella has more of a "swooping" tone if you see what I mean. Thank you both for pointing me to great resources.

XC165017 Western Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria griseogularis)

iPhone recording exported as mp3 from iTunes. The piping call of a Western Yellow Robin interspersed with the harsher alarm calls of the same bird.

xeno-canto.org

 

[Richard Dale]

I'm not a Western Australian, but I spend a fair bit of time in that part of the world. I've heard this call from Western Yellow Robins a few times, most recently in November 2023, so it's still relatively fresh in my mind.