singing tropical bird on sterling/flatbush

helloyellow

has anyone else heard a bird that sings like it's from the tropics on the block between flatbush/vanderbilt/sterling/park? it tends to sing late at night and has many amazing calls... is it someone's pet? a stray?

laura

Where I am on 13th Street btw 4th-5th there is a wonderful bird who sings in the early evening and late at night with a long string of different calls. I can't see him very well but after hunting around on the Internet I think he must be a mockingbird - different calls, sings late at night (around midnight). and seems to be grey with a white tail flash.

sweet tea

sounds like a mockingbird, all right. they can be quite lovely. there's one on my block sometimes that does car alarms, and it even makes them sound nice.

laura

When this guy gets going I feel like I'm in a tropical rainforest ...

helloyellow

sweet tea wrote: sounds like a mockingbird, all right. they can be quite lovely. there's one on my block sometimes that does car alarms, and it even makes them sound nice.

I just listened to a few mockingbird calls online and I'm not sure that's it... this bird doesn't make any little cheep cheep or chirpy noises -- it sings and sings up and down the scale with maybe five or six different calls. anyway, I love it, even if it keeps me up sometimes!

sweet tea

oh, i meant laura's bird. since she has a visual description which matches a mocking bird very well.

i have no idea about yours. but mockingbirds can sound like almost anything, not only chirp-y but quite melodic. one of our family friends was an artist who often sequestered himself on a tiny barrier island off the mississippi coast near his home. after he died, his widow went out to the island and found a mockingbird singing her husband's favorite tune. (bach? Beethoven? i wish i could think of what it was off-hand, but the point is that the bird learned it from him and sang it so well that it was recognizeable to one who did not expect it.)

laura

sweet tea wrote: after he died, his widow went out to the island and found a mockingbird singing her husband's favorite tune.

Wow.

I haven't been able to listen to any birdcalls online because my computer's been screwed up ... but my bird here doesn't do cheep-cheep stuff either.

liftandcut

:arrow: yes

liftandcut

If anybody finds out where these birds live, please break in to the places and set it free. Anybody who keeps a bird in a cage is a sicko with obscene control issues. Sorry to be like a major wet blanket, dudes.

liftandcut

oops

liftandcut

Sorry guys. My browser is bugging the hell out. I know multis are a no-no. Bad baby! Bad baby! :?

armchair_warrior

dude youre almost bad as me lol.

liftandcut

I know! I'm so embarrassed.

laura

liftandcut wrote: If anybody finds out where these birds live, please break in to the places and set it free. Anybody who keeps a bird in a cage is a sicko with obscene control issues. Sorry to be like a major wet blanket, dudes.

They're already free. They live outside. :roll:

liftandcut

Yippeee! What a relief! Thanks for the info Laura.

hal

I think it's unusual to be hearing bird calls late at night. I wonder what's going on.

We've got mockingbirds too. Ours also does car alarms. They likely have a nest in a particular tree that squirrels frequent because I watch the mockingbirds harrass the squirrels as they run along the phone cables.

Listen for red bellied woodpeckers. They're expanding their range north. We have a pair in our block. They're hard to see, but once you recognize their call you'll know they're there.

laura

Hal wrote: I think it's unusual to be hearing bird calls late at night. I wonder what's going on.

From what I've read about mockingbirds on the net, it's very common for them to sing late at night.

che

Since they're mimics, listening to mockingbird calls online won't get you what you're hearing, so the best way to tell whether you're hearing a mockingbird is to listen for a variety of calls each repeated in sets of about 5-7.

Also, it's not weird to hear mockingbirds at night. They're one of the species (like robins) which often sing in the evenings and at night...

"To the sweet sunny [Sterling Pl] take me home,
where the mockingbirds sang me to sleep every night,
oh why was I tempted to roam?" -Trad.

sweet tea

in fact, the chorus of an old folk song i get stuck in my head when i'm missing home, "sweet sunny south", goes like this:

take me back to the place where i first saw the light
to that sweet sunny south, take me home
where the mockingbird sings me to sleep every night
oh, why was i tempted to roam?

(i was so happy to see that there are mockingbirds in brooklyn; i never saw any in chicago, and i found myself missing them in a way i would never have predicted.)

laura

Since we're talking about mockingbirds, I suppose the repetition in posts is very appropriate!

I was never aware of mockingbirds until I moved to NY ... then I wasn't sure what I was hearing because I had this idea of mockingbirds as a southern bird ...

The first time I heard one singing around midnight was just this spring, though, and I was absolutely delighted! One article on the net said something about people considering them a "nuisance" for singing late at night, which seemed pretty darn churlish to me. I mean, jeez o peets. :roll:

(Meanwhile, I've recently started reading one of my all-time favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird, again...)

sweet tea

laura wrote: Since we're talking about mockingbirds, I suppose the repetition in posts is very appropriate!

whoops! that'll teach me to hit refresh.....

laura

sweet tea wrote: whoops! that'll teach me to hit refresh.....

I think you were posting pretty much simultaneously.

mikewalton718

we have a mocking bird that lives near my apt, sings very nicely, I often think of car alarms when it sings, mostly because of the way they have a changing but repeating repetoire of snippets of other bird songs, much like most car alarms. I have always listened closely to hear just how much car alarm is actually in the song. as Mocking birds are mimics I know the ones in Brooklyn must be hearing a lot of alarms. I'd love to hear some doing sirens, maybe some of the kids screaming n fighting outside my window, maybe a gun shot or two thrown in the repetoire, and the day I hear a Mocking bird blasting the latest 50 cent song, I'll know it's one who was born here in Brooklyn and never left. 8)

anyone actually have one that does car alarms? record that shit, I wanna hear it.

vanilla

it's probably one of the parretts that live in greenwood cemetery, i couldn't find the old nytimes article but you know... the great escape from JFK in the 70's, right?

sweet tea

actually, parrots don't tend to have very melodic calls. usually a lot of "craw" and "awk" and whistling and so forth. monk parakeets (which is what lives at greenwood) are great mimics, and can learn phrases, dog barks, door bells, that kind of thing, but i don't think they have a melodic song. i can't absolutely say it couldn't be those birds, but i've been out there and heard them, and i certainly don't remember anything very lovely about their sound, although they are fun to look at.

sweet tea

i was walking up prospect this evening, and at underhill, we heard this lovely bird song. the gf said, "wow, is that a parrot? it sounds tropical." eventually, we caught sight of it and watched it sing on a roof-top antenna until it flew away. flashes of white on grey wings -- mockingbird.

burningorange

Hey I've heard this bird too!!! my apartment faces the backyards of sterling on park place. I thought at first it was somebody playing with a casio keyboard, or some sort of bird calling device. I sat outside for 30 minutes trying to figure it out, to see the bird...or the keyboardist...but if figured it had to be a real bird. Glad to know I am not crazy.

So, its gotta be a mocking bird huh?

sweet tea

burningorange wrote:
So, its gotta be a mocking bird huh?

100%

as the southern daughter of bird watchers, i stand by that identification. actually, mockingbirds were one of the first birds i remember learning to identify, and i've always been a little sweet on them for that reason, especially during my nine years spent beyond their range. i was so happy when i moved here to see that they were here too!

idlewild

I believe the parrots take up residence on the grounds and/or clock tower of Brooklyn College and the cemetery by Bay Parkway.

pete_c

Five years ago a mockingbird was tormenting my wife and me, waking us up every morning around 5:15am - as we had just moved into our place on Sterling we were sleeping with the back door to the garden open (just the screen door bolted).

The little bastard was riffing on car alarms. Whoooop whoooooop whoooooop! EEEEH EEEEH EEEEEH EEEEEH. Riiirrroooh riiiirrrooooohhh rirrroooooh! Loud enough to wake me out of a sound sleep.

I have never wanted to shoot and kill an innocent wild animal as much. And I'm a pretty easy-going guy.

mc

I coudn't agree more, petec. We've got one on Sterling btwn Wash, Under & St. John's. It starts around 1 or 2 AM and keeps me awake all night. This is why I don't own a gun. I'd love to blast the thing into next year. Alas, not only is it illegal to kill a mockingbird, "it is sin to kill a mockingbird".