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Lake Cuyamaca, California: Mystery Song (1 Viewer)

IowanVagrant

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Heard this song at Lake Cuyamaca, California last weekend. I think the bird was in the top of a pine but not 100% if it was a pine or a nearby deciduous tree. If you're unfamiliar with the location, it's in southern California about an hour ENE of San Diego, elevation 4600 ft/1400 m. Mixed tree stands/woodland with a lot of open space surrounding it. The recording was tweaked in Audacity; background noise reduced, song amplified, and space in between the two iterations of the song reduced. The song is 3-4 ascending high whistles. Any lower "chuck" type notes are background noise. My first thoughts were warbler or sparrow, but none of the common ones seem to fit. Thanks for any assistance!
 

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  • Cuyamaca Whistle Song Twice.mp3
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Very odd. Familiar with the area but stumped. Things that I wonder about include pretty unlikely options such as stellers jay, brown creeper and mountain chickadee. Don’t really think any of those are it but not having any other ideas jump at me either
 
My first impression was Mountain Chickadee but it's now been 5-6 years since I've regularly birded in California so I could handily be forgetting something else!
 
Mountain Chickadee fits! Thanks everyone! Definitely not a typical song, but it seems they have more variable song than the Black-capped Chickadees I’m more accustomed to.
 
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