Bird i.d. from song, Atlantic coast of Morocco (1 Viewer)

[rsnidjik]

Attached is an mp3 file (~30 secs.) of a bird outside my fourth-floor apartment in a city on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. I haven't been able to see the bird yet, but I've heard it singing very often, pretty much throughout the daytime, in the past few weeks (starting in mid-August 2020).

Is anyone able to identify this beautiful singer based on its song(s)? Thank you.

Sorry for all the city noise in the background.

 

[Deb Burhinus]

My first thought is a Fulvous Babbler but I need to double check with some recordings ..

 

[Steve]

Caged Canary for me.

 

[rsnidjik]

My first thought is a Fulvous Babbler but I need to double check with some recordings ..

Thank you for this suggestion. There are two recordings here, one of which is actually from Morocco, but I'm not confident that it's the same as the one I'm hearing:

https://ebird.org/species/fulcha1

How I love that name "fulvous babbler"! I'm not going to mention it to my wife, as she will want to refer to me that way.

 

[rsnidjik]

Caged Canary for me.

This is a possibility, though a less attractive one for me, as I'm in a multi-dwelling apartment complex and there are caged birds here and there. I've seen a little bird in a cage in the apartment below, and once when I was listening to the bird in question, I could see that the caged fellow on the balcony below was apparently not the one singing. In fact, he was cheep-cheeping a little instead -- nothing like the elaborate patterns I'm hearing from the bird I'm wanting to identify. But that doesn't mean there's not another caged bird somewhere in the complex who might be singing the more elaborate songs.

Pardon my complete ignorance on this topic. I don't at all have the vocabulary to describe the data.

 

[Deb Burhinus]

I think Steve has got it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AavuNEqXfg

I must admit caged birds aren’t my forte!

 

[Nutcracker]

Do Fulvous Babblers ever occur in urban areas? The only ones I saw in Morocco were in desert shrubland near a reservoir, not even suburban let alone high-rise city centre areas. Sorry, but I'm with Steve on a cagebird (whether a Canary or something else, not sure!).

 

[Deb Burhinus]

Sorry, but I'm with Steve on a cagebird (whether a Canary or something else, not sure!).

Finnily enough I was just thinking Nutcracker would have go got that one! See my post above, I had already agreed with Steve’s suggestion so no need to apologise Btw I didn’t read the op properly and didn’t realise it was a city, I just clocked ‘Morocco’ and ‘coast’ - I’ve only seen them in the desert in Tunisia!

 

[Nutcracker]

Finnily enough I was just thinking Nutcracker would have go got that one! See my post above, I had already agreed with Steve’s suggestion so no need to apologise Btw I didn’t read the op properly and didn’t realise it was a city, I just clocked ‘Morocco’ and ‘coast’ - I’ve only seen them in the desert in Tunisia!

Cross-posted, I'd not seen your post agreeing with Steve (I was listening to several recordings, hence the time lag between your and my posts)!

 

[rsnidjik]

Yep, that Youtube clip pretty much nails it. Thanks, folks. I'll now try to figure out which apartment this bird lives in.

Even here in the city we do have some interesting wild birds, like several kestrels, for example, who appear frequently and whom we get to see hunting in a vacant lot as well as courting. But I was really hoping this brilliant singer would be some kind of exotic creature. On the other hand, I shouldn't dismiss the caged bird's beauty and singing skills just because it's spending its whole life in a cage. And perhaps it should be happy that it's not easy prey for the kestrels.

 

[rsnidjik]

Just to show you one of the kestrels who hangs out close by (in our bedroom window, in this case):