What bird says cheer up, cheerily?

Cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up, cheerily is an American Robin. Audubon describes the song as a series of rich, caroling notes that rise and fall in pitch, and it is among the first bird songs heard at dawn in spring and summer, often before first light, in towns, lawns, farms and woods. Three other birds sing in the same phrase-by-phrase style: the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, softer and sweeter, and the Scarlet and Western Tanagers, which sound like a robin with a cold.

Listen: the likeliest bird

The phrase is the one Audubon prints in its own field guide entry for the robin, cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up, cheerily, right after describing the song as rich caroling notes rising and falling in pitch. People shuffle the order freely, and cheerily, cheer up works just as well, because the words are only there to hold the beat. What matters is the shape: short phrases of two or three syllables, each one moving up or down, delivered one after another.

Robins are among the earliest voices of the day. Audubon places the song among the first heard at dawn in spring and summer, often starting just before first light, and males sing to defend territories as soon as they reach their nesting grounds, ahead of the females. You can hear them in cities, towns, lawns, farmland and forest. In the dry Southwest they summer in mountain conifer forests rather than lowland suburbs.

One more wrinkle: some robins spend the winter as far north as Canada, and Audubon notes that birds that wintered nearby may be the ones people celebrate as the first robins of spring. The bird singing cheer up in March may never have left.

Other birds that sing like a robin

Audubon's guide describes the Rose-breasted Grosbeak's song as like a robin's but softer and more melodious, and its summary goes further, calling it an improved version of the robin's voice. It breeds in open deciduous woods, often at edges and clearings where shrubs grow under tall trees, arrives late in spring, leaves early in fall and migrates at night. Audubon notes that strays turn up widely in the West in spring and fall. The quickest confirmation is the call, a sharp, penetrating, metallic eek-eek.

The Scarlet Tanager sings what Audubon calls a hurried, burry, repetitive warble, somewhat like a robin's. The burr is the key: the phrases have the robin's outline, but the tone is rough. It breeds mainly in deciduous forest, especially where oaks are common, and also in maple and beech woods. Spring migrants arrive by crossing the Gulf of Mexico. Its call is an emphatic, nasal chip-bang.

In the western mountains, a robin-like song from the conifers may well be a Western Tanager. Audubon describes the song as robin-like in its short, fluty phrases with a pause in between, but much hoarser in quality. It breeds in open conifer and mixed forests of the high mountains and the North, among spruce, fir, pine and aspen, and it nests farther north than any other tanager. Listen for the dry pit-r-ick call between songs.

How to tell which one you heard

• Clear, rich caroling at first light in a yard or park: American Robin.
• Like a robin, only softer and sweeter: Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Confirm it with the metallic eek.
• Hoarse and burry, in oak woods: Scarlet Tanager, with a nasal chip-bang.
• Hoarse, with pauses, in western mountain conifers: Western Tanager, with a dry pit-r-ick.
• Check the calendar. The grosbeak and both tanagers winter in the tropics and come back in spring, the grosbeak relatively late. A cheer-up song in early spring, before they return, is a robin.

If the song is coming from high in the leaves and you cannot see the singer, Warble can listen and name it from the sound alone.

Questions people ask

Warble is a game, not a field guide. Facts about birds on this page come from the sources above.