This early morning I noticed a clear short, sad bird call repeated in front of our balcony. First I thought of "some sort of snipe" on the shores of the stream approx. 30 m away, until I noticed a very grey and dull looking Phylloscopus (no green) with dark feet searching food in the top of a deciduous tree and at the same time calling this melancholic note, please check the enclosed sound-recording from 13 sec and onwards. When I got my camera out, it was gone. I would greatly appreciate your thoughts.
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Siberian Chiffchaff? Switzerland NE, 900 MAMSL, singing (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jaaserud
- Start date
kuzeycem
Medicinal Birding
I think this is the "sweoo" call of Common Chiffchaff which are usually given by hatch-year birds, but rarely by older birds too. The sonagram of your recording is attached below; in tristis the shape would be a flat line. Also check out this page for more info:
Attachments
Thanks a lot for your kind answer and the profound background data.
I'm not sufficiently trained on audio analysis to really compare the graphical representation.
However when comparing (=listening) my recording to those of "phylloscopus collybita tristis" on xeno-canto.org the acoustic match seems very close if not identical, i.e. XC809586 and XC766277 . And as noted the bird was grey without any green or yellow component.
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It's simply about what Merlin (or another app) shows in the sonogram. They may sound similar to the human ear for many reasons, but--as far as I understand it myself--the diagnostic call of ssp. tristis is flattish (like the one in the first recording you linked), while yours is a symmetrical upside-down 'V'. And, yes, I sympathise with your difficult relationship with sonograms: have a look at Songs and calls, Warsaw (Poland), today.
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