What bird sounds like a kazoo?

A kazoo-like toot from the treetops is most often a Red-breasted Nuthatch, a tiny bird of spruce, fir and pine whose high, nasal yank, yank has been compared to a toy tin horn. If the note is lower and fuller and comes from oaks or big shade trees, it is probably a White-breasted Nuthatch, which stays put all year. In the pine woods of the Southeast, a squeaky toot that sounds like a rubber duck is a Brown-headed Nuthatch. You can hear all three in any month, though Red-breasted numbers swing wildly from one winter to the next.

Listen: the Red-breasted Nuthatch

No field guide we found actually writes the word kazoo, but they come close. Wikipedia notes that the call, transcribed as yenk or ink, has been likened to a toy tin horn or a child's noisemaker, and describes it as high, nasal and weak. The Missouri Department of Conservation says it is sometimes compared to a small tin horn and spells it yank, yank-yank or a quick wak, wak, wak, wak, wak. That mix of high pitch and nasal buzz is the kazoo people are hearing. Mixed in, you may catch soft tseep and tsit notes. The song is the same idea slowed down: a series of clear, nasal, rising notes, eeen, eeen, eeen.

This is a bird of conifers. It lives year-round in northern and mountain conifer forests across much of Canada and Alaska and in parts of the northeastern and western United States, and in the East its range has been spreading south. Some winters it turns up far beyond that. When the northern cone crop fails, roughly every other year according to the Missouri guide, large numbers head south, and a few reach the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. In Missouri it is an uncommon, sporadic winter visitor that arrives in September and is nearly gone by mid-May, common one winter and absent the next. Even a few backyard pines can hold one, especially near a feeder.

The other two kazoo players

If the kazoo comes from a big oak in a leafy neighborhood rather than a spruce, think White-breasted Nuthatch. Audubon writes its call as a nasal yank-yank, and the Missouri guide says it is lower-pitched than the Red-breasted's while still nasal. Its song is a series of low whistled notes. This is the nuthatch of mature deciduous woods, of woodland edges along rivers, roads and clearings, and of suburbs and parks with large trees. It is usually a year-round resident, found from coast to coast, so it is the kazoo you are most likely to hear on a cold January morning among bare oaks.

In southern pine woods, the toy in question is a rubber duck. The Missouri guide says the Brown-headed Nuthatch's call sounds a lot like a rubber ducky, and Audubon describes its voice as high-pitched piping notes unlike those of any other eastern nuthatch. These birds call to each other constantly as they move through the branches, usually in pairs or family groups, and in winter they join mixed flocks with Carolina Chickadees, woodpeckers and Pine Warblers. Look for them in open woods of loblolly, longleaf, slash or pond pine across the Southeast, from Texas to Florida and north into the Mid-Atlantic. They are permanent residents and rarely wander north, so a squeaky toot from a Minnesota spruce is not this bird.

How to tell which one you heard

• Look at the trees. Spruce, fir or pine in the North or the mountains: Red-breasted. Big oaks and shade trees: White-breasted. Open southern pines: Brown-headed.
• Listen to the pitch. The Red-breasted's toot is high, thin and a little weak. The White-breasted's is lower and fuller. The Brown-headed's is a sharp, squeaky piping.
• Count the voices. Brown-headed Nuthatches keep up a running conversation within pairs and family groups, so you often hear several squeaks overlapping.
• Check the calendar. A Red-breasted well south of its breeding range is a winter visitor, usually between September and May, and far more likely in a flight year. The other two stay home all year.

If the kazoo keeps tooting but the player stays hidden in the needles, Warble can listen and tell you which nuthatch it is.

Questions people ask

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