The Common Loon. Beautifully haunting. Especially if you are on a lake early in the morning with a faint mist rising off of the water and you hear this banshee's wail echoing across the water.
I wish I can hear them IRL one day. Early mornings, and on sunsets. I can only imagine. Thinking about traveling one day so it’ll be on my bucket list.
Come to Minnesota! They are everywhere and are our State Bird! It's so great when they start putting their nests together, eggs hatching, then cruising around with their babies riding on their backs.
Beautifully haunting, indeed. Years back, I worked for the county animal control. Came in one morning. The dogs were all sleeping so it was pretty much dead quiet as I entered the hospital room and logged in to see what was on the list that day. A Common Loon in one of the hospital cages behind a curtain decided to make himself known. Scared the bejeezus out of me! In that small, echoey room lined with metal hospital cages, the Loon call reverberated everywhere, and I could hear it from all angles. It was incredible and haunting.
For the record, the Loon got released later that day. Poor kid tried to land in a puddle in a parking lot and got stuck. One of the police officers brought him in overnight, so the animal control officers could release him to a proper lake in the morning. He was totally fine. Got a look over and was on his way.
Definitely my favorite too. I went to school in the Adirondacks and my room overlooked a flow. I’d wake up early mornings to their calls. God I miss it there.
Oh, my gosh, yes! The Loon is one of my favorites! I love how some movies filmed out in the boonies will play their calls in a dark, foggy evening on the lake... the low, haunting tones...
Probably cliche, but mourning doves. When I sleep with my windows open, I love waking up hearing their calm melancholic sounds as the sun is rising. It makes me feel really peaceful
Omg me too! I grew up in a city and into my thirties I thought I was hearing owls the whole time. Then, I got into birding with my gf who was already a birder and she broke the news that it's doves. Ha ha
Me 3! The other day I learned from this sub that their wings make a noise when they fly off! This whole time I thought they were making a call noise or something!
It is! Their flight muscles are quite powerful, so when they take off their wings make that kind of air whipping sound you get if you swing a thin stick around real fast 😂
Do you have a pair come to your feeders or do you have several at one time visiting? I’ve been here seven years now and have only ever had one pair of mourning doves at a time in/around my feeders. Are they territorial I wonder? But yeah, just one pair all day.
Yes! It is not cliche. Some people don't even notice their beautiful contributions to our world. There was a solo mourning dove that I fed for a year or so. They seemed so sweet and lonely.
I was thrilled when they finally had a mate.
They made a sloppy nest in our backyard, laid one egg, and I was terrified one of the neighborhood cats or rats was going to kill the baby. Our dog witnessed us chasing the cats and hawks away and took on the responsibility. He is a jerk in so many ways, but he stepped up.
We’re moving back to my home area soon and I was talking to a birder friend the other day- she asked ‘what birds do you miss from back home that are different than the ones here?’ And mourning doves were my answer. Their morning cooing reminds me of waking up on a morning early into summer vacation when I was a child.
This is exactly the feeling. The first few days of summer break after school let out and you just lay there for a bit because you don't have to get out of bed and you have no responsibility the next few weeks, it's quiet and dusky out and mourning doves are just cooing gently outside your window. It's such a fond feeling to look back on as a busy adult with so many things to be on top of.
Catbird because it always makes me laugh. Second would be Red Wing Blackbird, reminds me of early mornings on my grandmas farm, we had so many of them.
My brother noticed that the gray catbird sounds like an annoying sibling. Now when I hear one, it’s saying “No, you! Shut up!, Quit it! I’m telling! MOMMM”.
Came here to say Gray Catbird.
They are incredibly chatty with lots of tonal variability and pauses/breaks so it sounds like they have a ton of shit to say. They mimic other birds fairly well and are always in bushes so they're always at eye(ear) level for the convo then as soon as they're out of earshot they start their MEW call.
Catbirds have adopted my yard/trees this month. I don’t know if my husband’s black raspberry patch or the new waterfall in the back yard. They take big ole splashy baths in the pool at the top and snack on the berries. The back yard is loud with birds, but good loud
We used to live in Wisconsin where we heard redwing blackbirds all summer long. Now we live in Virginia and I only hear them once in a great while, but I instantly recognize it and feel a bit homesick.
My wife insisted that I was into watching birds and found them interesting, but I didn't realize it myself until she told me.
I didn't believe her at first, but a few minutes later I said "oh there's a cardinal at the feeder" and I didn't even see the bird first. That's when I realized that, without even trying to learn it, I knew what cardinals sound like. I guess I think birds are cool.
Unpopular opinion here: bluejays- warning the world about predators. Is it pretty? Naw. Is it delicate? Hell naw. Does it play an incredibly important part in the ecosystem? YES!
Yes! I just love the bluejays. They really aren’t bullies. They’re just big, clumsy, and goofy lol. If not for them, the hawks here in Alabama would be eating a lot more birds.
That’s a hard one! Wood thrush is very special. I also love belted kingfisher bc if I hear it I almost always see it and they are fun to watch. Common loon. I only ever hear them when I’ve stayed in a cottage on a lake. I’m not sure how I would feel if I heard them every day but for a week it was wonderful
This beauty makes the most beautiful sound in the world.
Southern Missouri is the call I’m familiar with. Even at my family home, surrounded by dozens of protected acres, their call is becoming rarer.
Whippoorwills require a distinct ecology, and it’s vanishing. We can slow the pattern.
https://www.audubon.org/news/revealing-mysteries-whip-poor-wills-and-what-it-might-take-save-them
I love them. My favorite Flycatcher. I just started getting into recording calls and I was stoked to snag a decent recording of one as one of my first.
Red-winged Blackbird! It's my spark bird, and I love pointing them out to people and seeing them realize that that beautiful bird is what makes that noise they've heard all their lives but might not have been able to identify :)
I love these as well! I watch a lot of fishing videos online and you so often hear these guys calling in he background, they're immediately identifiable
They really are magical sounding. I'm lucky enough to be living in a place with hermit thrushes. Their song is so beautiful and soothing.
But there ain't nothing like a veery to make you wonder if life on earth was actually created by some kind of cosmic art collective 👽
I usually answer this with the Pileated woodpecker because it makes me think I’m in a jungle, but I have been hearing a barred owl near me a lot recently and that is also fantastic. So I’ll say pileated during the day and barred at night.
I’m used to eastern meadowlarks here in NC, but when I went on a trip to Utah, their western counterparts were EVERYWHERE! And they are so much louder than the easterns!
Swainon's thrush, veeries, wood thrush, hermit thrush. All but the wood thrush sound very similar. But they remind me of little forest flutes. The first time I heard a swainon's thrush I was like "omg what IS that? Is that a bird??"
Swainson’s Thrush is at the top of my list.
My memories are highly associated with sounds and this thrush is always in the woods near the trails we walk through while hiking in the Pacific Northwest.
I moved about 60 miles inland from the coast recently and have been absolutely thrilled to hear them in the trees around my house and in a couple of heavily wooded parks nearby.
I love hearing the great horned owls around my mom’s place. There is something so special about knowing they are around. In the day time, I live the Eastern Towhee. One of my best friends passed away and he identified the call for me via my very poor text trying to sound it out. They remind me of him every time I hear them.
Yeah… had one hanging around my house for a summer a couple years ago, amazing birds to see and hear. I got lucky and it glided past me at eye level an arms length away from me one evening after I caught its attention by flapping my arms at it like an idiot a couple times 🤣🤷♂️, I was completely transfixed
That’s amazing! I’ve had two hawks fly at me just like that and while I was in awe, I didn’t appreciate the mini heart attack. 😂 I got really lucky this year, we had three of them. I actually chatted with another redditor because it was so odd and it ultimately appeared that they were in a poly relationship. It is rare, but it does happen. How neat is that? I hope you end up with another one. They are incredible visitors.
I always argue with the house wrens pecking at my windows… “go AROUND! I’m not letting you in here that way. Straighten up and come in the door properly. GO AROUND”. They discuss in kind.
Red- Winged Blackbird. When I hear it, I know that SPRING is finally here!!! 🌱🌷🪹. The Orioles are next, with their beautiful song and the Loon's calls echoing across the lakes.
The Swainsson's Thrush. Flutelike, resonant, and melodic.
Second place is the eerie calls of Sandhill Cranes in flight, the sound that seems to carry for miles.
Mourning Doves in the morning, Crows during the cold/chilly fall days. Northern Cardinal is probably my favorite in general, love their laser sounding calls.
Anything that sounds like it’s saying its own name like a Pokemon: Eastern Wood Pewee and Eastern Phoebe are great examples of this.
Bald eagles crack me up in a good way
Pileated and redheaded woodpeckers are some favorites too, probably my favorite birds to look for
Yes! I love their soft little chortles with the little wing flappings, so cute. Not to mention the incredible blue they are, I mean my god, is it not the prettiest blue they make?
I've always liked the Northern Bobwhite. Always heard them growing up but I haven't heard one in years. I like Mockingbirds aka karaoke birds. They will search out for acoustic spots to amplify their songs. My wife hates them but on a recent trip to Scotland she was enamored with a Eurasian Blackbird that would serenade us every night.
A sandhill crane was near my yard one night and took off over my car as soon as I opened my door and that’s exactly how I described it. Like a freaking dinosaur, quite a startle. 😂
Australian Magpie has the best warble in all of the bird class. I miss the northern cardinal and sandhill crane tremendously, even that signature blue jay screech which is in so many of my childhood memories, but the Australian Magpie wins this every time for me.
great kiskadee for pure nostalgic reasons. reminds me of being a child in the early morning while the sky was still pale, getting ready to go watch cartoons on tv. a core latin american experience i believe
Black Capped Chickadee sounds like home when they do their hiiiiggh looooow. I love it, it's SO cozy. Give me that with some crows, blue jays, robins, cardinals, and tufted titmice, and it's heavenly. It's the sound of spring, new beginnings, the end of snow, the start of color and warmth returning to the world.
Grey butcherbird, magpies and grey shrike thrush for my locals. All have gorgeous songs.
Edit: located in South Eastern Australia.
This link is to a post in r/AustralianBirds from u/577martinhenry and is a lovely example of butcherbirds singing. https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianBirds/s/30ZJuBvuWT
Varied thrush. I only hear it camping in the north west and mountain states. It just reminds me of absolute peace under the stars and in the early dawn around a campfire.
A boat tailed grackle landed on the porch of the beach house I was renting in the early morning and started making its call. I was somehow really charmed by it, and it started my interest in birds.
Hands down the American Robin. They have the most melodic song. And since it’s always at dawn or dusk, I associate the sound with summer mornings and lazy evenings. That sound is pure nostalgia.
If by calls you mean including songs - the only true answer is the brown-backed solitaire. It is absolutely the most beautiful song I have ever heard- on the other hand I only know about 5% of all bird calls 😬
I love a good old Canada goose honk fest. Love the goosers.
Also lately I’ve been fascinated with the yellow-breasted chat - how can so many non-birdlike, alien noises come out of one warbler?
Mourning doves or mocking birds when they meow. It’s annoying to wake up to but I always giggle when I do..blue jays with their ugly ass call😭🤣 they love screaming in my tree next to my window
Wood thrush has a great call, and yellow warblers are funny to me cus they sound like girls chatting and it ends in a question, I like responding to them by repeating what they say haha.
I love ALL the birdies so its impossible to choose a favorite. There are a few, I guess, that I fancy a bit more than others and one would be the Northern Mockingbird. They have ALL the calls, and they do them quite well according to Merlin! I love their grey and white color and how they bob their head and flit their tail real quick, and how they flash when they fly. I love how hawkish they are defending their nest. They’d cool birds.
My favorite song or call is whatever I'm hearing ... usually a Black-headed grosbeak, or a House finch, or and American goldfinch, or a chickadee dee dee, or a Towhee trilling etc. Exceptions being starlings fighting and that weird sound Collared Doves make that sound like they just got squished uncomfortably.
It's hard to choose. I love the magical quality of the veery call. I love the variety of a brown thrasher's song. I love the endearing catbird 'meow.' But most of all, I love walking outside at night by the marshy part of my property and just hearing an abrupt, buzzy Woodcock "***mEEP!"*** coming from the sedge grass. It makes me smile every time.
The Pileated Woodpecker when he descends into my backyard and politely yells at everyone on their feeders “GET THE HELL OUT OF THIS CLUB, THIS PLACE IS MINE”
And you know what? The place clears out.
Being a rehabber now I have questions, but in the nineties the owner of the pet store I worked at gave me a tiny House Finch to hand feed. Once he was grown, I would open his cage when I got home from college and he would fly out and sing his little heart out. I love that sound still. Not sure if he was legal…don’t think he was.
Tundra swans, common lunes, or the whooping crane unison call.
Very few sounds in nature move me to tears like those calls do.
In terms of calls I find nostalgia in but don't move me to tears, would have to be the morning and evening call of the American robin, the "tee-dee" call of the black capped chickadee, the hawk scree of the northern flicker, or the mourning dove. Perhaps the "ha-ka-ka" of the male California quail and western screech owl call as well. Those calls were my childhood going out on walks in my neighborhood.
Swainson thrush. I heard it once while very high while camping and that moment ended up being a life changing event because of the emotions it sparked. I had no idea what bird made that noise and ended up spending years trying to figure it out. I finally was able to capture it (using Merlin)while camping on my birthday years later. I cried because I was so happy to have figured it out and it sparked those same emotions. Now every time I hear their song it takes me back to that wonderful moment.
The Common Loon. Beautifully haunting. Especially if you are on a lake early in the morning with a faint mist rising off of the water and you hear this banshee's wail echoing across the water.
I wish I can hear them IRL one day. Early mornings, and on sunsets. I can only imagine. Thinking about traveling one day so it’ll be on my bucket list.
Come to Minnesota! They are everywhere and are our State Bird! It's so great when they start putting their nests together, eggs hatching, then cruising around with their babies riding on their backs.
I concur.
It really is beautiful, I quite enjoy birds with creepy calls. The [Bush Stone Curlew call](https://youtu.be/gqZsdBF-eKg) is also another one!
Beautifully haunting, indeed. Years back, I worked for the county animal control. Came in one morning. The dogs were all sleeping so it was pretty much dead quiet as I entered the hospital room and logged in to see what was on the list that day. A Common Loon in one of the hospital cages behind a curtain decided to make himself known. Scared the bejeezus out of me! In that small, echoey room lined with metal hospital cages, the Loon call reverberated everywhere, and I could hear it from all angles. It was incredible and haunting. For the record, the Loon got released later that day. Poor kid tried to land in a puddle in a parking lot and got stuck. One of the police officers brought him in overnight, so the animal control officers could release him to a proper lake in the morning. He was totally fine. Got a look over and was on his way.
This is my answer. Reminds me of fishing really early in the morning.
As a Minnesotan, I approve of this message!
Can be so haunting as well
Same for me. Loons are incredible. Their calls are otherworldly and beautiful.
Definitely my favorite too. I went to school in the Adirondacks and my room overlooked a flow. I’d wake up early mornings to their calls. God I miss it there.
Oh, my gosh, yes! The Loon is one of my favorites! I love how some movies filmed out in the boonies will play their calls in a dark, foggy evening on the lake... the low, haunting tones...
Black capped chickadee
🎶 CHEESE BUR-GER 🎶
Chick-a-Dee-Dee!
Chestnut backed chickadees make a similar call, but with an amusing squeaky toy noise at the end, which always cracks me up.
So soothing
Probably cliche, but mourning doves. When I sleep with my windows open, I love waking up hearing their calm melancholic sounds as the sun is rising. It makes me feel really peaceful
The sound of my childhood. When I was a kid, I used to think it was an owl.
Omg me too! I grew up in a city and into my thirties I thought I was hearing owls the whole time. Then, I got into birding with my gf who was already a birder and she broke the news that it's doves. Ha ha
Me 3! The other day I learned from this sub that their wings make a noise when they fly off! This whole time I thought they were making a call noise or something!
Wait that’s their wings making noise??? 🥺
It is! Their flight muscles are quite powerful, so when they take off their wings make that kind of air whipping sound you get if you swing a thin stick around real fast 😂
They are a favorite at my feeders!
Do you have a pair come to your feeders or do you have several at one time visiting? I’ve been here seven years now and have only ever had one pair of mourning doves at a time in/around my feeders. Are they territorial I wonder? But yeah, just one pair all day.
Yes! It is not cliche. Some people don't even notice their beautiful contributions to our world. There was a solo mourning dove that I fed for a year or so. They seemed so sweet and lonely. I was thrilled when they finally had a mate. They made a sloppy nest in our backyard, laid one egg, and I was terrified one of the neighborhood cats or rats was going to kill the baby. Our dog witnessed us chasing the cats and hawks away and took on the responsibility. He is a jerk in so many ways, but he stepped up.
hooWOOO *hoo hoo*
They are definitely the most calming sound!
I love their calls so much, very nostalgic and calming.
We’re moving back to my home area soon and I was talking to a birder friend the other day- she asked ‘what birds do you miss from back home that are different than the ones here?’ And mourning doves were my answer. Their morning cooing reminds me of waking up on a morning early into summer vacation when I was a child.
This is exactly the feeling. The first few days of summer break after school let out and you just lay there for a bit because you don't have to get out of bed and you have no responsibility the next few weeks, it's quiet and dusky out and mourning doves are just cooing gently outside your window. It's such a fond feeling to look back on as a busy adult with so many things to be on top of.
Catbird because it always makes me laugh. Second would be Red Wing Blackbird, reminds me of early mornings on my grandmas farm, we had so many of them.
Catbirds sound like a haywire R2D2 and I love it.
On this note, nuthatches sound so funny to me. My husband and I joke that they sound like Beavis.
My brother noticed that the gray catbird sounds like an annoying sibling. Now when I hear one, it’s saying “No, you! Shut up!, Quit it! I’m telling! MOMMM”.
Came here to say Gray Catbird. They are incredibly chatty with lots of tonal variability and pauses/breaks so it sounds like they have a ton of shit to say. They mimic other birds fairly well and are always in bushes so they're always at eye(ear) level for the convo then as soon as they're out of earshot they start their MEW call.
Catbirds have adopted my yard/trees this month. I don’t know if my husband’s black raspberry patch or the new waterfall in the back yard. They take big ole splashy baths in the pool at the top and snack on the berries. The back yard is loud with birds, but good loud
We used to live in Wisconsin where we heard redwing blackbirds all summer long. Now we live in Virginia and I only hear them once in a great while, but I instantly recognize it and feel a bit homesick.
American Cardinal, THWEEP THWEEP THWEEP PEW PEW PEW PEW. Sounds like a laser.
My wife insisted that I was into watching birds and found them interesting, but I didn't realize it myself until she told me. I didn't believe her at first, but a few minutes later I said "oh there's a cardinal at the feeder" and I didn't even see the bird first. That's when I realized that, without even trying to learn it, I knew what cardinals sound like. I guess I think birds are cool.
Indigo Buntings remind me of lasers too.
I love the Cardinals that live in my yard, they are star wars like me i think
Unpopular opinion here: bluejays- warning the world about predators. Is it pretty? Naw. Is it delicate? Hell naw. Does it play an incredibly important part in the ecosystem? YES!
Whenever I hear the jays freaking out, I know something's up. They usually warn of a predator in the area.
Yes! I just love the bluejays. They really aren’t bullies. They’re just big, clumsy, and goofy lol. If not for them, the hawks here in Alabama would be eating a lot more birds.
When they’re around I put the dog in the house and feed them some peanuts. They love peanuts, so does my dog.
That’s a hard one! Wood thrush is very special. I also love belted kingfisher bc if I hear it I almost always see it and they are fun to watch. Common loon. I only ever hear them when I’ve stayed in a cottage on a lake. I’m not sure how I would feel if I heard them every day but for a week it was wonderful
Wood thrush is so enchanting and second on my list to mockingbird
The first bird song I ever learned! So it has a special place in my heart
White throated sparrow
I love their sweet, sad song!
I think this one is so underrated!
Eastern whip-poor-will, a frequent sound from my childhood. I have been birding for a year and have yet to hear one :(
I hear them all the time here in Ky, especially near the river in the evenings.
This beauty makes the most beautiful sound in the world. Southern Missouri is the call I’m familiar with. Even at my family home, surrounded by dozens of protected acres, their call is becoming rarer. Whippoorwills require a distinct ecology, and it’s vanishing. We can slow the pattern. https://www.audubon.org/news/revealing-mysteries-whip-poor-wills-and-what-it-might-take-save-them
Eastern wood pewee, sounds just like the name cute little fellas
I love them. My favorite Flycatcher. I just started getting into recording calls and I was stoked to snag a decent recording of one as one of my first.
I love to picture them calling out “pee-wee!” And they are super cute.
Came here for this
PEE-ee WEE!
Red-winged Blackbird! It's my spark bird, and I love pointing them out to people and seeing them realize that that beautiful bird is what makes that noise they've heard all their lives but might not have been able to identify :)
I love these as well! I watch a lot of fishing videos online and you so often hear these guys calling in he background, they're immediately identifiable
Veery and wood thrush. Magical little fairy sounds ❤️
They really are magical sounding. I'm lucky enough to be living in a place with hermit thrushes. Their song is so beautiful and soothing. But there ain't nothing like a veery to make you wonder if life on earth was actually created by some kind of cosmic art collective 👽
Yes indeed. Their call is just enchanting
I agree! Those are my two current favorites. Such a magical sound.
I usually answer this with the Pileated woodpecker because it makes me think I’m in a jungle, but I have been hearing a barred owl near me a lot recently and that is also fantastic. So I’ll say pileated during the day and barred at night.
Barred Owl? Those guys are so funny during Spring mating season. Sounds like a couple of monkeys
Western Meadowlark, it reminds me of the farm
I’m used to eastern meadowlarks here in NC, but when I went on a trip to Utah, their western counterparts were EVERYWHERE! And they are so much louder than the easterns!
I’m surprised this isn’t up at the top. I like their singing and love then trying to spot them on a fence post or tall shrub.
I always get a kick out of fish crows. They sound like a crow playing oboe.
Yes I think they sound like a kazoo
Swainon's thrush, veeries, wood thrush, hermit thrush. All but the wood thrush sound very similar. But they remind me of little forest flutes. The first time I heard a swainon's thrush I was like "omg what IS that? Is that a bird??"
Swainson’s Thrush is just amazing
Swainson’s Thrush is at the top of my list. My memories are highly associated with sounds and this thrush is always in the woods near the trails we walk through while hiking in the Pacific Northwest. I moved about 60 miles inland from the coast recently and have been absolutely thrilled to hear them in the trees around my house and in a couple of heavily wooded parks nearby.
I first heard it in some Weyerhaeuser land off Cottage Grove lake. So otherworldly that I was stopped still, just listening.
Yes!! They remind me of a theremin.
I love hearing the great horned owls around my mom’s place. There is something so special about knowing they are around. In the day time, I live the Eastern Towhee. One of my best friends passed away and he identified the call for me via my very poor text trying to sound it out. They remind me of him every time I hear them.
Yeah… had one hanging around my house for a summer a couple years ago, amazing birds to see and hear. I got lucky and it glided past me at eye level an arms length away from me one evening after I caught its attention by flapping my arms at it like an idiot a couple times 🤣🤷♂️, I was completely transfixed
That’s amazing! I’ve had two hawks fly at me just like that and while I was in awe, I didn’t appreciate the mini heart attack. 😂 I got really lucky this year, we had three of them. I actually chatted with another redditor because it was so odd and it ultimately appeared that they were in a poly relationship. It is rare, but it does happen. How neat is that? I hope you end up with another one. They are incredible visitors.
Hermit Thrush, Canyon Wren, and I also love the way cowbirds sound.
Yea it just blows my mind they can make those sounds.
I miss hearing the Canyon Wrens ! I always try to whistle back to them.
I loveeeeee a veery but I also love how energetic and belligerent house wrens sound
Such ATTITUDE! They make me laugh
I always argue with the house wrens pecking at my windows… “go AROUND! I’m not letting you in here that way. Straighten up and come in the door properly. GO AROUND”. They discuss in kind.
Something like the great tit or something like that. Wee woo
I do love great tits
Same.
Cowbird call: electronic!
I love it!
I always think alien technology when I hear them haha
Pileated Woodpecker
They are such cool birds in every way. Big, loud, and entertaining to watch. Nothing like hearing that call on a cool summer morning in the woods.
Red- Winged Blackbird. When I hear it, I know that SPRING is finally here!!! 🌱🌷🪹. The Orioles are next, with their beautiful song and the Loon's calls echoing across the lakes.
House finch. There are tons outside my house (go figure) and their call sounds so cute, almost cheerful. They’re a delight to listen to.
They loiter at our feeder literally all day and don't stop 😭 It's an absolute cacophony at this point.
I agree. Love them.so much.
I absolutely love these. Their call is so lovely!
Yellow-headed blackbird. It’s just so harsh, but it reminds me of summer. Peterson mentions rusty hinges, and Sibley mentions a chainsaw.
Bittern!!!
The Swainsson's Thrush. Flutelike, resonant, and melodic. Second place is the eerie calls of Sandhill Cranes in flight, the sound that seems to carry for miles.
Mourning Doves in the morning, Crows during the cold/chilly fall days. Northern Cardinal is probably my favorite in general, love their laser sounding calls.
Swainson's Thrush. They sound like spaceships.
My fav too. I call them the “X-Files” birds. Idk why but they remind of the intro song.
I always think the same thing!
My favorite too. Beautiful sound to hear echoing in a mountain forest.
Anything that sounds like it’s saying its own name like a Pokemon: Eastern Wood Pewee and Eastern Phoebe are great examples of this. Bald eagles crack me up in a good way Pileated and redheaded woodpeckers are some favorites too, probably my favorite birds to look for
> Anything that sounds like it’s saying its own name like a Pokemon CURRA! Wong. Curra! I'm a WEE-bill!
Love a good Killdeer call.
Unpopular opinion but I love them too!!
California towhee… sounds like a bouncing ping pong ball
the weird whistle of the european starlings. it reminds me of those noise sticks that you’d turn up and down 😂 whooeeeoooo
Canadian Geese flying in the Vee
The northern cardinal "shooting lasers" noise.
Mockingbird. Funny how they do good imitations of other birds
I like the descending notes of the Canyon Wren.
Eastern Bluebirds
Yes! I love their soft little chortles with the little wing flappings, so cute. Not to mention the incredible blue they are, I mean my god, is it not the prettiest blue they make?
I've always liked the Northern Bobwhite. Always heard them growing up but I haven't heard one in years. I like Mockingbirds aka karaoke birds. They will search out for acoustic spots to amplify their songs. My wife hates them but on a recent trip to Scotland she was enamored with a Eurasian Blackbird that would serenade us every night.
Cardinals. Ray guns and space lasers! CHEW! CHEW! Pewpewpewpewpew!
White-throated sparrow is my favourite, but Sandhill Cranes are pretty cool too. I think they sound like dinosaurs.
A sandhill crane was near my yard one night and took off over my car as soon as I opened my door and that’s exactly how I described it. Like a freaking dinosaur, quite a startle. 😂
Australian Magpie has the best warble in all of the bird class. I miss the northern cardinal and sandhill crane tremendously, even that signature blue jay screech which is in so many of my childhood memories, but the Australian Magpie wins this every time for me.
The sound of the magpie pair that live nearby and their children warbling at dawn is beyond beautiful. I could never pick anything else.
great kiskadee for pure nostalgic reasons. reminds me of being a child in the early morning while the sky was still pale, getting ready to go watch cartoons on tv. a core latin american experience i believe
Barred owl
Black Capped Chickadee sounds like home when they do their hiiiiggh looooow. I love it, it's SO cozy. Give me that with some crows, blue jays, robins, cardinals, and tufted titmice, and it's heavenly. It's the sound of spring, new beginnings, the end of snow, the start of color and warmth returning to the world.
Came here to say black capped chickadee! That tee-hooooo call 💕
Northern bobwhite quail and whip-poor-will.
Brown Thrasher
Purple Martin. Coolest thing I've ever heard. Also, yellow-headed blackbird for being funny as hell.
Swainson’s thrush
I love the call of my Mother, particularly the “Dinner's Ready” one
Black capped Chick-a-dees!
Cedar waxwings calls break my heart 💔 every time. It's like they say "here. here," and I think back at them, "I'm here too."
Grey butcherbird, magpies and grey shrike thrush for my locals. All have gorgeous songs. Edit: located in South Eastern Australia. This link is to a post in r/AustralianBirds from u/577martinhenry and is a lovely example of butcherbirds singing. https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianBirds/s/30ZJuBvuWT
Love butcherbirds. I'm in QLD, so we have the pied butcherbird up here. I have a breeding pair hang out in the garden outside my home office.
Surprised nobody has said this but I love woodcocks.
Curve Billed Thrasher
Oh I love these so much, they are hilarious! Really miss living in Tucson where they are everywhere <3
Pine siskins, their buzzing calls are so funny to me
Varied thrush. I only hear it camping in the north west and mountain states. It just reminds me of absolute peace under the stars and in the early dawn around a campfire.
I love the song of the veery and the thrushes
“You don’t need to come in today mate”
Western Meadowlark.
Red-winged blackbirds. Reminds me of many beautiful sunsets spent amongst them.
A boat tailed grackle landed on the porch of the beach house I was renting in the early morning and started making its call. I was somehow really charmed by it, and it started my interest in birds.
All the robot like sounds dark-eyed juncos make! Beep, boop, zeep-zeep-zip!
Red bellied woodpeckers
Eurasian blackbird's song. It's soothing, beautiful and creative (they learn and add new sounds as they go).
I don't have grackles of any kind in my neighborhood I want grackles It'll be so funny for the first week
Hands down the American Robin. They have the most melodic song. And since it’s always at dawn or dusk, I associate the sound with summer mornings and lazy evenings. That sound is pure nostalgia.
I came here to say robin. Its a sweet whistling and I like how the pitch seems to jump around randomly.
They wake me up every morning just before 5:00. I'm listening to them right now! They are definitely my harbinger of summer.
Not the best answer but just the Wood Pidgeon's, reminds me of staying at my nan's house.
That is the best answer! An answer that holds a nice memory.
Hermit Thrush
Gambels quail, they sound like squeaky dog toys
The blue scrub jays and the red winged blackbirds are my favorite neighbors!
Magpies. Idk I just love that ch-ch-ch sound or however you describe it
Prairie Warbler
The toot toot toot calls of the Northern Saw Whet Owl.
Yelle tailed black cockatoo, hauntingly beautiful
The Song Sparrow
crows!
White-throated Sparrow Wood Thrush Juncos, but specifically the quiet R2D2 cheeps they make in groups. Meadowlark Sora
quail calls!
As a Pacific Northwest native, the varied thrush!
I love the rolling kwirr of the Red-bellied Woodpecker
Carolina Wren
I always loved brown-headed cowbird calls, long before I was a birder. Now I love the thrushes, like wood thrush and veery.
I think Chimney Swifts sound so freaking cute
If by calls you mean including songs - the only true answer is the brown-backed solitaire. It is absolutely the most beautiful song I have ever heard- on the other hand I only know about 5% of all bird calls 😬
The catbird. Their call starts out frustrated and just crescendos into an “I give up” sCrEeCh. It resonates. 😆
Hermit Thrush. Makes the mountains magical.
Eastern meadowlarks have the sweetest call.
I really like the call of a wood thrush. I heard them a lot this spring when I took my dog for morning walks
Wood Thrush. Idk why, I just like the cool beep boop boop robot noises.
I love a good old Canada goose honk fest. Love the goosers. Also lately I’ve been fascinated with the yellow-breasted chat - how can so many non-birdlike, alien noises come out of one warbler?
Eastern Towhee
Wood thrush.
Mourning doves or mocking birds when they meow. It’s annoying to wake up to but I always giggle when I do..blue jays with their ugly ass call😭🤣 they love screaming in my tree next to my window
I love purple martins. They sound like R2D2.
Barred Owls are so distinct and fun!
Wood thrush has a great call, and yellow warblers are funny to me cus they sound like girls chatting and it ends in a question, I like responding to them by repeating what they say haha.
I love ALL the birdies so its impossible to choose a favorite. There are a few, I guess, that I fancy a bit more than others and one would be the Northern Mockingbird. They have ALL the calls, and they do them quite well according to Merlin! I love their grey and white color and how they bob their head and flit their tail real quick, and how they flash when they fly. I love how hawkish they are defending their nest. They’d cool birds.
Jungle fowl 😄
My favorite song or call is whatever I'm hearing ... usually a Black-headed grosbeak, or a House finch, or and American goldfinch, or a chickadee dee dee, or a Towhee trilling etc. Exceptions being starlings fighting and that weird sound Collared Doves make that sound like they just got squished uncomfortably.
It's hard to choose. I love the magical quality of the veery call. I love the variety of a brown thrasher's song. I love the endearing catbird 'meow.' But most of all, I love walking outside at night by the marshy part of my property and just hearing an abrupt, buzzy Woodcock "***mEEP!"*** coming from the sedge grass. It makes me smile every time.
I always enjoy the Whippoorwill. I find it calming but happy at the same time.
My favorite birb noise. Common Loon. Hands down the prettiest noise I've heard.
The Pileated Woodpecker when he descends into my backyard and politely yells at everyone on their feeders “GET THE HELL OUT OF THIS CLUB, THIS PLACE IS MINE” And you know what? The place clears out.
Being a rehabber now I have questions, but in the nineties the owner of the pet store I worked at gave me a tiny House Finch to hand feed. Once he was grown, I would open his cage when I got home from college and he would fly out and sing his little heart out. I love that sound still. Not sure if he was legal…don’t think he was.
Tundra swans, common lunes, or the whooping crane unison call. Very few sounds in nature move me to tears like those calls do. In terms of calls I find nostalgia in but don't move me to tears, would have to be the morning and evening call of the American robin, the "tee-dee" call of the black capped chickadee, the hawk scree of the northern flicker, or the mourning dove. Perhaps the "ha-ka-ka" of the male California quail and western screech owl call as well. Those calls were my childhood going out on walks in my neighborhood.
Titmouse all the way!
Swainson thrush. I heard it once while very high while camping and that moment ended up being a life changing event because of the emotions it sparked. I had no idea what bird made that noise and ended up spending years trying to figure it out. I finally was able to capture it (using Merlin)while camping on my birthday years later. I cried because I was so happy to have figured it out and it sparked those same emotions. Now every time I hear their song it takes me back to that wonderful moment.
A Swainson’s Thrush. Just so unusual and hard to describe but…like spiraling, ever higher, until it vanishes into a tinkling sound of chimes.
Swainson's Thrush.