What bird sounds like someone whistling?

A sliding wolf whistle from a rooftop, a wire or a parking lot light is most often a European Starling, a noisy mimic that is most common wherever people live. Clear, human-sounding whistled tunes from yard trees usually come from a Northern Cardinal (a run of down-slurred whistles), a Black-capped Chickadee (FEE-bee) or a Tufted Titmouse (peter-peter-peter). If a slow, plaintive pee-a-wee keeps coming from the woods late on a summer evening, it is an Eastern Wood-Pewee.

Listen: the European Starling's wolf whistle

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency lists a sliding wolf whistle among the starling's calls, and it is the sound that makes people turn around on the sidewalk. The rest of the song is a busy mix of trills, whistles, chatters and twitters, and starlings also copy other birds; the agency names the Eastern Meadowlark, the Brown-headed Cowbird and the Eastern Wood-Pewee. Females sing too, mostly in fall.

Where you heard it is half the identification. Starlings are tied to developed land and are most common near people, on farms and in towns and cities. Tennessee calls them an abundant year-round resident of every built-up part of the state, and in winter migrants join the locals in huge nighttime roosts. A wolf whistle from a gutter, a light pole or a power line over a parking lot fits a starling much better than a person hiding nearby.

The backyard whistlers

The cardinal is the yard bird most likely to sound like a person whistling a tune. Its song is usually a repeated series of clear, down-slurred whistles, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine includes it among the bird songs you can learn to imitate, as long as you can whistle. If the phrase sounded like birdie, birdie, birdie, see What bird says birdie, birdie, birdie?.

The chickadee's song is about as plain as whistling gets: two or three notes, written FEE-bee or FEE-bee-ee. The same Maine guide suggests practicing it until your version sounds perfect, which tells you how close to human it already is. More on that song at What bird says fee-bee?.

The titmouse whistles peter-peter-peter with the first syllables pitched higher, and adds high tseets, other whistles and harsh scolding notes. The Missouri Department of Conservation calls it a common year-round resident of forests, woodlands, parks and suburbs and a frequent visitor to feeders, most noticeable in winter. So a loud, repeated whistle near the feeder on a cold morning is often this bird; see What bird says peter, peter, peter?. And if the whistle said its own name, bob-white, see What bird says bob-white?.

Whistling late into the evening

Most songbirds go quiet as the light fades. The Eastern Wood-Pewee is an exception: Audubon notes that it sings most at dawn and dusk and may keep singing quite late in the evening, after most other songbirds have stopped. The song is a plaintive, whistled pee-a-wee that drops at the end, and it is usually heard long before the bird is seen. Males sing to defend their territories, especially at dawn and dusk in spring.

Pewees are summer birds of deciduous forest and its edges, such as roadsides and the margins of clearings. They arrive mostly in May, and few are left after early October, so a pee-a-wee in December is not a pewee. Remember, too, that starlings imitate this song: if it comes from a rooftop in town, look for a starling.

How to tell which one you heard

• One sliding whistle, like a catcall. European Starling, especially around buildings, farms and parking lots. Wait for the chatters and twitters that follow.
• The same whistle over and over, sliding down each time. Northern Cardinal.
• Two or three plain notes, FEE-bee. Black-capped Chickadee.
• A pair of notes repeated, high then lower, peter-peter-peter. Tufted Titmouse, often near a feeder.
• A slow, sad-sounding pee-a-wee from the woods at dusk, between May and early October. Eastern Wood-Pewee, unless it comes from a roof, in which case think starling again.

If the whistler keeps at it, Warble can listen and name it. A starling doing its best pewee may take a few phrases to give itself away, so let it sing.

Questions people ask

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