What bird says witchety, witchety, witchety?

The bird singing witchety, witchety, witchety is a Common Yellowthroat, a small warbler with a yellow throat and, in the male, a black mask. It sings in spring and summer from cattails, reeds, wet thickets and tall grass, in marshes nearly coast to coast. The song is a three-part phrase repeated several times, and the spelling changes with the writer: witchity, wichity, which-is-it. The usual lookalike is the Carolina Wren, whose teakettle has the same build but a harder accent.

Listen: the likeliest bird

Nobody agrees on the spelling, and everybody agrees on the bird. Audubon's field guide gives wichity-wichity-wichity in one place and witchity-witchity-witchity-witchity-wit in another, along with the alternative which-is-it, which-is-it, which-is-it. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation writes witchity, witchity in its Birding by Ear guide. The University of Illinois Extension's Voice of the Wild podcast uses both forms on one page, witchity in the show notes and witchety in the transcript. In Audubon magazine, Tom and Lucas Stephenson go with wit-chi-tah.

The letters do not matter, because the rhythm does the work. The Stephensons describe the song as a single section built from one three-element phrase, repeated, and sung in slow slurs with only shallow changes in pitch. Say witchety three or four times without taking a breath and you have the beat. It is smooth and even rather than punchy, and that smoothness turns out to be the key to the one lookalike that causes real trouble.

Where you hear it: cattails and tall grass

Audubon describes the yellowthroat as present in practically every reed bed and cattail patch from coast to coast. It breeds most abundantly in marshes and other very wet places with dense, low growth, and it also nests in briars, damp brushy spots and overgrown fields, though it is scarce on dry ground. Illinois Extension names tallgrass prairie and open marsh as the places you are most likely to hear the song, and the Oklahoma guide is blunt about it: if you want to hear one, you may have to visit a wetland.

For a warbler, the singer is unusually easy to find. Audubon notes that males often sing from the top of a tall stalk, and Illinois Extension says they call all summer long, sometimes popping up out of the reeds and grass to do it. They are also tireless. The Oklahoma guide says a male singing to attract a mate and defend his territory may deliver as many as 125 songs in an hour, which is how a single bird can seem to own an entire marsh.

Not every sound from the cattails is the song. Audubon mentions a sharp chip and a low, rough call note that often gives the bird away in dense marsh growth. Illinois Extension points to a scolding rattle you can hear anywhere there is tall grass with a little water nearby, and notes that the female, who lacks the black mask but keeps the yellow throat, has a crisp chip of her own. When the bird is not singing, those notes tell you it is still there.

The lookalike: Carolina Wren

In their Audubon magazine guide to confusing songs, the Stephensons put these two birds side by side. Both are heard in spring and summer in scrubby fields, bottomlands and forest edges in the eastern United States, and both sing a single section made of a repeated three-element phrase: wit-chi-tah, wit-chi-tah against tea-kett-le, tea-kett-le. They admit that the words can trade places in your head, so the spelling will not rescue you.

What does work is the accent. The Carolina Wren's phrase contains one abrupt, accented element, and it gives the whole song a strong, repeating beat. The yellowthroat's version sounds even and smooth by comparison. Once you hear that difference it is hard to miss: the wren hammers, the warbler rolls.

How to tell which one you heard

• A smooth, even three-part phrase from cattails, reeds or wet grass: Common Yellowthroat.
• The same three-part rhythm with one hard, accented note in each phrase: Carolina Wren.
• Check the tallest stalk. A singing male yellowthroat often perches right on top, black mask and yellow throat in full view.
• Listen between songs. A low, rough call note or a scolding rattle from the grass points to the yellowthroat.
• Ignore the spelling. Witchety, witchity, wichity and which-is-it all describe the same bird. Teakettle belongs to the wren.

If the chanting keeps coming from somewhere deep in the reeds, Warble can listen and name the singer 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.