Bird call ID - Lancashire, UK (1 Viewer)

[BenjaminJ]

Does anyone recognize the bird call in this recording? Edit: soundcloud link had problems - see attachement (thanks, mod!).
BirdNET only recognized the willow warbler that's heard in the background, but I'm talking about the four consecutive chirps. Any guess on what it could be? I've heard this bird call on numerous walks on this piece of land from around the same spot, but I haven't been able to actually see the bird.

It was recorded in Lancashire on a piece of derelict land that's mostly open with small sallow trees growing all over. Other birds heard and seen in this location are willow warblers, chiffchaffs, wrens, blackcaps in the larger trees surrounding the land, a greater whitethroat, kestrels, magpies, goldfinches and bullfinches.

Mod edit: haven't a clue what is going on with the URL but I have attached the audio

 

[foresttwitcher]

I get a "Can't find that page" message from the link!

 

[jogresh]

Ditto

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello Benjamin,
welcome to birdforum!
Thats a Great Tit, normally, the speed of this call is different (see here: XC655576 Great Tit (Parus major)), but quality and single tones are good for this species.
The different speed of this call made this recording reminiscent to a variant song of a Yellowhammer (the one, where the last drawn out notes are lacking, regular heard from YH). My first impression was: its a Great Tit that imitates a Yellowhammer (Great Tits imitates a lot of other birds), but I am not sure with your Great Tit.

 

[BenjaminJ]

Hello Benjamin,
welcome to birdforum!
Thats a Great Tit, normally, the speed of this call is different (see here: XC655576 Great Tit (Parus major)), but quality and single tones are good for this species.
The different speed of this call made this recording reminiscent to a variant song of a Yellowhammer (the one, where the last drawn out notes are lacking, regular heard from YH). My first impression was: its a Great Tit that imitates a Yellowhammer (Great Tits imitates a lot of other birds), but I am not sure with your Great Tit.

Thanks, Alexander. I don't think it sounds quite similar enough to a great tit, however. Besides the tempo, this bird always made 4 chirps, never 6... I also wouldn't expect a great tit to sit in one location for as long as this bird did.
I do hear the similarity in tone with the yellowhammer. I've also observed that a yellowhammer sitting in one place without moving for a long time.

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Thank you Ben, hearing the recording again I hear what you mean. I have heard Great Tits imitating different species, but they arent brilliant mimetics, therefore the real species is (often) appearent by the chrirrping Tit quality and thats what I heard here.
I cant convince myself this beeing a Yellowhhammer, but this might well be due to the computer I am using now (poor excuse, I must admit). I will hear it on a better device in the next days.
I think I remember Chaffinch making similar sounds???? But although the speakers are not the best, I am still in the Great Tit (imitating a YH or a bad mimetic Great Tit imitating a Reed Bunting?) camp for this, but happy to be corrected.

 

[lou salomon]

to my ears, the sound of it certainly suggests yellowhammer.

 

[citrinella]

Can't agree with yellowhammer. Calls are harsher single note, well spaced, or two note - same first note with a higher second note. When the description said four note I thought I might be going to hear reed bunting song, but that is not what this is. I don't know from this recording but certainly would not argue against great tit.

Mike.

 

[jogresh]

Could perhaps be a Great Tit (doubt it's Yellowhammer). I think we're probably not able to nail it 100% from that 1 short clip.

 

[foresttwitcher]

I've heard Great Tit doing something that sounds similar.

 

[BenjaminJ]

Thanks for all the feedback so far. I think I'll have to go back and see if I can get a better recording and hopefully a sighting. I'm by no means a veteran birder so wouldn't dismiss your opinions, but I think I'll need to gather more data to be convinced.

 

[BenjaminJ]

So I went back yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to catch more than the briefest glimpse, when the bird saw me before I saw it and subsequently hid itself from sight. I did get some better recordings, though. The birdnet app says it's a reed bunting ('almost certain'). Going through the Macauley library, I'm not able to find anything that matches my recording, but the sounds are very similar. I'm willing to believe the app in this case. Any opinions on this?

This time I also saw the Greater whitethroat that I had only heard earlier, which was nice.

 

[mummymonkey]

Yes that's a reed bunting.

 

[BenjaminJ]

Finally got visual confirmation that it's indeed a reed bunting. I'm quite amazed that the bird has been basically in the same few bushes for the past 3 months or so...

 

[babuccu]

the intro sounded like an ortolan bunting to me