What bird sounds like a cricket?

An insect-like buzz from a grassy field or prairie is most likely a Grasshopper Sparrow, whose high, thin song sounds so much like a grasshopper that the bird is named for it, or a Savannah Sparrow, whose fine, buzzy song is also described as insect-like. In woods, a wheezy, chattering warble from the trees that sounds more bug than bird is often a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. A whole flock giving very high, buzzy trills in a fruit tree is Cedar Waxwings. A steady chirp from the lawn after dark is usually a real cricket.

Listen: the grassland sparrows

The Grasshopper Sparrow is the bird most worth knowing here, and it earns its name. Its song is a high, insect-like kip-kip-kip, zeeee: a few short notes and then a long, thin buzz much like a grasshopper's. It is so insect-like that a singing bird can go unnoticed, even though it usually sings from the top of a weed stalk. Males sing from low perches to defend a territory, sometimes in flight during courtship, and sometimes at night, which is when the cricket comparison really bites. Look for it in fairly dry fields and prairies with tall grass, weeds and a few shrubs, and in Florida in prairies with scattered palmettos. When flushed, it flies a few yards low over the grass and dives back in headfirst.

The Savannah Sparrow is the other field bird that sounds like a bug. Its song is a high, fine series of buzzes that step down in pitch, ending with a low final buzz, and Tennessee's wildlife agency calls it insect-like. Next to a Grasshopper Sparrow it sounds harsher and lower. This sparrow is widespread and abundant in open, grassy places across North America, including fallow fields. It is cleanly streaked brown and gray, with a short notched tail and a yellowish stripe over the eye.

Other birds that sound like insects

This bluish-gray bird with a white eye ring and a black tail has a voice that sounds borrowed from the bug world. The Missouri Department of Conservation describes the song as a series of buzzy, wheezy, squeaky, chattering warbles that often sound like an insect, and the call as a drawn-out, buzzy pzeeee. In Missouri it is present from late March through mid-September, most numerous from mid-April through late August, in forests, woodlands, swamps and shrubby places. A soft, buzzy chatter from the woods in June, with no bird in sight, is often this one.

Cedar Waxwings have no real song, but their calls are very high whistles and buzzy trills about half a second long, and they call a lot, especially in flight. Since they travel in flocks, sometimes of hundreds, the effect is a faint, shimmering buzz coming from a tree full of birds. Look for them in trees at the edges of woods, in parks with well-spaced trees, and around orchards and gardens, wherever there are berries or other fruit. They breed in southern Canada and winter across the southern half of the United States, wandering wherever the fruit is.

How to tell which one you heard

• Where it came from. Low in a grassy field or prairie: Grasshopper or Savannah Sparrow. In woods or shrubby thickets: gnatcatcher. A fruit tree full of birds: waxwings.
• Its shape. Grasshopper Sparrow: a few ticks, then one long, thin buzz. Savannah Sparrow: several buzzes stepping downward, rougher and lower. Gnatcatcher: a rambling, wheezy chatter plus a buzzy pzeeee. Waxwings: half-second buzzy trills from many birds.
• The time of day. A Grasshopper Sparrow may sing at night, but a steady chirp from the ground on a summer night is far more often an insect.
• The season. Grasshopper Sparrows migrate mostly in late April and October and sing on their breeding grounds in between. Gnatcatchers are summer birds in places like Missouri, from late March to mid-September. Savannah Sparrows winter in southern states such as Tennessee. Waxwings wander with the fruit crop and can show up unpredictably.

If the bug turns out to have feathers, a few seconds of the song is enough for Warble to try to name it, though a faint buzz far out in a windy field may leave it unsure.

Questions people ask

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