UKC

I am trying to identify a bird that I keep hearing but not seeing. I haven't been able to get a clear enough recording for an app to make an identification.

The best way I can describe the sound is like the noise when you shake a spray can of paint and the agitator ball rattles up and down, but higher pitched and more musical. 

I live in a suburban area just north of Glasgow. I put out a variety of bird food and have various songbirds that visit regularly, but I know what most of those sound like. We also have a lot of corvids in the area and some gulls that come in from the Clyde. Behind my house is open - a (currently unused) school playing field, then arable land. Between my house and the playing field is a row of silver birch that are just developing catkins. The sound seems to be coming from those trees, but try as I might, I never see anything there.

Any ideas?  

Sounds like a magpie to me. Very similar to the sound a box of matches makes when you shake them.

Pretty sure it isn't a magpie.  We do have magpies around, but this is more musical than that, and quieter than magpies usually are too. I suspect than when I said it sounds like an agitator ball people are imagining it to be loud, but actually it is very quiet. I tend to hear it when I can't see any of the numerous corvids that live in this area around.

Having said that, I will keep an eye out for magpies next time I hear it.

As Neil said, Magpie

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-songs/what-bird-is-that/

No, that's not it.

But I will have a poke around on there and try to find it -thanks!

or green woodpecker, these are more difficult to see than Magpie

youtube.com/watch?v=nNcwwVGCukc&

Does it sound a bit like a broken whistle? If so could be a greenfinch (listen for the wheeze) there's a radio series about bird id on radio 4 at the moment too or get online there's plenty of song and call id about.

Some warblers make some strange sounds - see sedge warbler here, and also reed warbler https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/sedge-w...

Mistle thrush could be another possibility.

Look up the voice of a nuthatch. I find that one hard to describe.

So, from the RSPB link, the closest I can find is the starling. It isn't the sound I would associate with them, but in the RSPB recording you can hear a quiet rhythmic clicking in the background about 1/4 of the way in to the recording and again about 2/3 of the way through.

I am not sure that is quite right, but there are certainly starlings around here (watching a squadron of them decimating one of my feeders right now).

Corn bunting makes a sound that's described as 'as set of keys rattling' 

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/corn-bu...

Live on arable land, their call travels a fair bit.

Also, if in doubt, its a dunnock !! (they always throw me)

Perhaps the alarm call of a great tit? 

I'm struggling to find anything online to help with that, but they do have a 'rattly' call when alarmed.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions - I have spent a very pleasant lunch break looking up and listening to the calls of everything suggested.

So far, the best hit is still surprisingly the clicking noise I could hear in the starling recording... 

Ha, yes! It's taken me a long time to realise that the small shy sparrow that likes to shelter under the ground feeder while it's feeding is actually a dunnock!

Possibly - we certainly have them around here. I am familiar with their normal call (this one https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/great-t...) but I don't know what the alarm call sounds like and I haven't been able to find it either.

From 2:08

youtube.com/watch?v=qFgoBVaj23I&

There's a very good Android phone app called BirdNET (may also be available on apple) you can download that allows you to record sound, isolate/highlight the call you are interested in and match it on some university servers somewhere and gives you suggestions back. Hasn't been wrong for me so far, and rarely fails to work (only time it's failed has been when too much other noise is around). It's also free.

Thanks - I assume gaz was referring to what the narrator calls the  "churring" call in that film. That isn't it, but at least I know that now!  

The bit where they filmed the great tit making the high pitched alarm call to scare off sparrows so it could get to the feeder was interesting. I have seen them doing that in my garden too, but I hadn't realised they were deliberately scaring the sparrows off - I assumed they were just being opportunistic!

Thanks - yes I have been trying that but so far I haven't been able to get a good enough recording of this particular sound. It has bee helpful in distinguishing and learning most of the birds that come to my feeders though.

They have fooled many a keen birder, including me a gazillions times!  Still keep an ear open for corn bunting, usually perched on a wire in arable farm land or coasts  

Had superb views of yellowhammer this morning.

My wife and myself are hopeless but still trying to identify birdsongs with the help of an RSPB DVD. I'd have suggested starling too, it can certainly make a rather clicky sound (we've been watching them in our garden). It does seem to have a variety of songs however, and I think it is also known to mimic other birds which complicates things.

I bought that DVD for Mum for Christmas - she loved birds but she was losing her sight and it was making her sad not to be able to watch them any more, so she was delighted to be able to start picking them out by sound. She passed away a couple of weeks ago - I might see if Dad will let me have it when I can get home to help sort her stuff out. Nice memory of her, plus I am interested in it for its own sake too.

Bird ID’ing by call and song is a great skill to have. This morning I heard , but did not see: nuthatch, blackcap, chiffchaff and reed bunting and yesterday heard an oystercatcher fly over my house somewhere. 
 

yep, i'd go with the clicks/pops/whistles of a starling from your description. (they also mimic other sounds they hear eg diyers shaking spray cans?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_starling#Vocalization

it's satisfying when your guess is confirmed with a visual as today with a blackcap - what a rich and loud warble it has! (not unlike a speeded up blackbird)

A very good bird sound site is: https://www.xeno-canto.org/

Another vote for the Birdnet app. I've learned a lot of bird calls now and there's a hell of a lot of singing going on at the moment. Unfortunately this has also affected our pair of budgies which is driving the missus mad during the current confinement.

This app is great:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/chirpomatic-bird-song-id/id972765162

I use it a lot and it's pretty good, although can get more difficult where there are other birds chirping. It tends to lock onto the loudest!!

Another vote here for the Cornell Bird lab android app. Best available for identifying birds by sound, at least in the US where I have played around with it. It now also includes Euro species, but I have not extensively tested it here, as I don't have an android phone.

Their Merlin bird ID by questionaire is excellent for beginners, even though I personally like the Northern Euro bids (for Europe) and the Sibley app (for the US) better for identification by sight.

Generally, though, it is a good rule of thumb to see if you can find a starling if you encounter "weird" bird sounds. I am regularly woken since February by a starling that does a perfect imitation of Golden Oriole.....

CB

You can download the mp3s for the RSPB bird song book here at the bottom of the page they are in a ZIP file:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/rspb-guide-to-birdsong-9781472955876/

Though it is only fair to buy the book as well. The book and MP3s are fantastic, I have been doing it in lockdown and gone from knowing hardly any to quite a few, really satisfying

Problem with the starling is that it mimics mort  other birds  - so less certain to identify.

Check this out - wood warbler. Not so likely without  mature  woodland

youtube.com/watch?v=1GD8HanQfJE&

Too high pitched - thanks though. I heard it again this morning and I am increasingly convinced that it is a starling.  It's different from the chattering I hear when they are at the feeders, but apparently males like to show off their range of vocalisations when trying to attract a mate, so I wonder if that's what I am hearing...it is that season!

Anything like one of these?:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000gtpn

Lol - no!

this might help

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/16/home-birds-how-to-spot-...

i've noticed noisy herring gulls have become common in the sky above my garden recently (~30km inland) they must be getting hungry with the decline of fishing and tourism..stay safe..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-52106709

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/seagull-swallows-rabbit-who...

big part of their diet will be worms, and possibly was before less fishing/tourism. In fact, u can often see black headed gulls on playing fields rapidly tapping their feet, which I can only think is attracting worms via vibration

Yeah, me too. I’ve seen large flocks of black headed gulls here in the North Pennines.

The local lapwings ain’t happy!

Shouldn’t laugh but the orange gull is fekin hilarious!

are they anything like the Pink Gulls of the Todday isles?

Click on malc’s bbc link and have a look.

Blackcaps have a lovely varied song, and are easy to visualy identify. been seeing and hearing them a lot recently.

Starlings are excellent mimics and I've heard a tame one immitate words too!.  Their mimicry can even tell you where they've been too before.  I worked in the Shetland's some years ago and  a starling was 'singing' above my head.  Then I heard the distinct 'meow' of a buzzard and instinctively looked up.  Of course there was no buzzard as they did not occur on Shetland.  But it did tell me that the starling I was listening too had lived in a location where buzzards were common.

I believe there are bird song apps, but I've never used one.  Identification of birds by their calls and songs is a method almost all twitchers, birders etc., use.  And it has its manay advantages over trying to identify a bird by sight.  As Mick Taylor mentions,   walking anywhere and you can ID a bird as long as you can hear it and you don't have to spend time looking for a bird - as you have found out.  

Writing this reminds of many years ago I lived for a couple of years in a city.  Walking home  one evening I heard flying above me the wild cries from a flock of Redshanks flying in the dark, above all the noise and traffic.  With the current reduction in traffic noise I'd guess its easier to hear bird sounds in towns and cities now.