WarbleWarble / Sound finder
What bird is making that sound?
Describe it the way you would to a friend: a cat, a car alarm, someone whistling, a word. Pick what it reminds you of and hear the birds that make it.
Or skip the guessing: Warble names the bird while it sings. Free, one catch a day.
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Sounds like another animal
A cat, a dog, a frog, a monkey: when a bird does an impression of something else.
- What bird sounds like a cat?A kitten mewing in the bushes with no kitten in sight is usually a Gray Catbird. Here is how to be sure.
- What bird sounds like a cricket?Insect-like buzzing from a field is often a Grasshopper or Savannah Sparrow. In the treetops, it may be a gnatcatcher.
- What bird sounds like a dinosaur?A harsh croak from the water is usually a Great Blue Heron. A rolling trumpet overhead is a Sandhill Crane.
- What bird sounds like a dog barking?Barking from the woods at night is often a Barred Owl. Barking from a rooftop by day may be a mimic.
- What bird sounds like a frog?A gulping boom from the cattails at dusk is often an American Bittern. In the yard, it may be a mimic doing a frog.
- What bird sounds like a hawk?A hawk scream from inside a leafy tree is often a Blue Jay. Here are the other mimics, and how to spot a real hawk.
- What bird sounds like a horse whinnying?A whinny from the trees is usually an Eastern Screech-Owl. From the cattails, it is probably a Sora. Here is how to tell.
- What bird sounds like a monkey?Monkey sounds in the woods after dark are usually Barred Owls. By day, listen for a woodpecker.
- What bird sounds like an eagle?The eagle scream from movies belongs to a Red-tailed Hawk. Here is what a Bald Eagle really sounds like.
- What bird sounds like an owl?That soft hooting outside in the middle of the day is usually a Mourning Dove. Here are the other doves that hoot.
Sounds like a machine
Car alarms, ringing phones, beeps, knocking and lasers.
- What bird makes a knocking sound?Knocking on a tree, a downspout or your siding is almost always a woodpecker drumming. The rhythm tells you which one.
- What bird sounds like a phone ringing?A phone that rings in the yard with nobody there is often a mockingbird or a starling showing off a borrowed sound.
- What bird sounds like a smoke alarm chirp?A beep that sounds like a dying smoke detector may come from a tiny owl at night or a mockingbird copying electronics.
- What bird sounds like dripping water?That watery gurgle from a lawn or a wire is probably a Brown-headed Cowbird, a bird whose notes really are built like falling drops.
- Which bird sounds like a car alarm?Nine times out of ten it is a Northern Mockingbird. Here is how to be sure, and who else gets blamed.
- Which bird sounds like a laser, a video game or a phone?The pew is a cowbird, the squeak from the sky is a hummingbird's tail, and the ringtone is a mockingbird. How to tell.
- Which bird sounds like a squeaky wheel, a rusty gate or a squeaky toy?The squeaky wheel is a Black-and-white Warbler. The rusty gate is a grackle. Here is how to sort the rest of the squeaks.
Sounds like a person
Whistling at you, a baby crying, someone screaming or laughing.
- What bird sounds like a baby crying?A wailing cry from a marsh after dark is often a Limpkin. Here are the other criers, feathered and not.
- What bird sounds like someone whistling?A wolf whistle from a rooftop is usually a starling. Meet the yard birds that whistle like people, and the one that keeps going into the evening.
- Which bird sounds like it is laughing?In the woods it is a Pileated Woodpecker, a flicker or a Barred Owl. At the beach it is a gull. On a lake it is a loon.
Sounds like an instrument
Flutes, kazoos and tin horns.
- What bird sounds like a flute?Clear, flute-like phrases from a shady forest: a thrush. A flute-like gurgle from open grassland: a Western Meadowlark.
- What bird sounds like a kazoo?A nasal toot like a toy horn, coming from the trees: a nuthatch. Here is how to tell which of three.
After dark
What is calling at night, including the states where people ask most.
- What bird beeps at night?A tiny owl that sounds like a truck backing up, a woodcock beeping in a field, a nighthawk overhead: the birds that beep after dark.
- What bird screams at night?Barn Owl, Barred Owl or, in Florida, a Limpkin: the birds behind the screams people hear after dark, and how to tell which one it was.
- What bird sings at night in California?Mockingbird, owls, Common Poorwill or Black-crowned Night-Heron: who calls after dark in California, and where to hear each one.
- What bird sings at night in Florida?Mockingbird, Limpkin, Chuck-will's-widow or Barred Owl: who is making noise after dark in Florida, and when and where to hear each one.
- What bird sings at night in Texas?Mockingbird, Chuck-will's-widow, nighthawk or owl: the Texas night singers, with when and where to hear each one.
- What bird is singing at night?Mockingbird, whip-poor-will, nighthawk or owl? The birds that sing after midnight in each part of the country, and how to tell them apart.
- Owl sounds: who is hooting in your yard?Deep hoots, a whinny, a bouncing ball or a scream: how to name the five owls Americans actually hear at night.
Says a word
Cheeseburger, drink your tea, who cooks for you: the phrases birders hear in songs.
- What bird says birdie, birdie, birdie?Loud, clear whistles on repeat from a treetop: a Northern Cardinal, whether your ear says birdie, cheer or pretty.
- What bird says bob-white?A whistled name from a brushy field: the Northern Bobwhite, a quail far scarcer now than it was in the 1960s.
- What bird says cheer up, cheerily?Rising and falling whistles at first light: an American Robin. Unless it sounds hoarse, or a little too sweet.
- What bird says cheeseburger?One high whistle, then two lower ones: usually a chickadee, sometimes a wren. Here is how to tell which.
- What bird says Chicago?Three loud notes with a high middle, from the brush: a California Quail. In the desert, its cousin adds a fourth.
- What bird says conk-la-ree?A gurgle, then a rising trill from the top of a cattail: a male Red-winged Blackbird, flashing his red shoulders.
- What bird says drink your tea?Two quick notes and a trill from a brushy tangle: an Eastern Towhee. Out West, its spotted cousin.
- What bird says fee-bee?Two birds say fee-bee. One whistles it cleanly from the trees, the other rasps it from your porch roof.
- What bird says here I am, where are you?Short questions and answers from high in the leaves, all day long: a Red-eyed Vireo, the preacher bird of eastern woods.
- What bird says mine, mine?No real gull says mine, but the ones eyeing your fries come close. What Ring-billed, Herring and Laughing Gulls really sound like.
- What bird says nevermore?Poe's raven had one word. Real ravens have a deep croak, a big vocabulary and a gift for mimicry. Here is how to tell one from a crow.
- What bird says oh sweet Canada?Two slow whistles, then Canada, Canada, Canada, or Peabody, Peabody, Peabody: the same White-throated Sparrow either way.
- What bird says peter, peter, peter?A loud whistled run of two-beat notes from the treetops: a Tufted Titmouse, or in Texas its black-crested cousin.
- What bird says pleased to meet you?A run of bright whistles that ends on an emphatic meetcha: a Chestnut-sided Warbler in a brushy clearing.
- What bird says potato chip?Four bright notes timed to a roller-coaster flight: an American Goldfinch passing over. Plus the two finches it gets mixed up with.
- What bird says quick, three beers?Three emphatic notes from the top of a dead tree: an Olive-sided Flycatcher, ordering a round.
- What bird says teacher, teacher, teacher?A chant that grows louder with every phrase, from a forest floor you cannot see: an Ovenbird.
- What bird says who cooks for you?After dark it is a Barred Owl. On a hot afternoon in Arizona or Texas, it is probably a dove.
- What bird says witchety, witchety, witchety?A rolling three-note chant from the cattails: a Common Yellowthroat. Here is how to rule out the Carolina Wren.
- Birds that say their own nameChickadee, phoebe, killdeer, whip-poor-will, bobwhite, pewee. The birds that introduce themselves, and why English named them that way.
Still stuck?
Start with how to identify a bird by its song, browse every bird song on the site, or let the app do it.
Free to play, one catch a day. iPhone, US birds.
Point your iPhone camera hereto open the App Store.