help needed identifying species of a bird

[rkazero]

near Ottawa in residential area; also seen (and heard) in rural wooded area
Bird is slightly smaller than a robin
Light grey I think (not sure about markings, seen only at dusk)
Perches in trees
calls while perched and while flying
fairly slow flight
call very distinctive: moderately pitched, two short notes, pause, repeat. Fairly pure sound, monotone
reminiscent of the erh erh we tend to associate with monkeys

[CJ McRae]

My guess would be that you have a grey catbird. They often are quite vocal at sundown. They mimic other bird calls and usually repeat each call twice...pause...and move on to another call.

[Rotarran]

Nuthatches tend to make monkey-like sounds...but then they're quite a bit smaller than Robins.

[rkazero]

The nuthatches sound something like my bird though not exactly.  The strange thing about its sound was the complete lack of variation in pitch, tone, frequency, spacing, texture.  Just two calls exactly the same each time, followed by a pause, then two more calls.  And I was listening for several minutes, following as it flew from tree to tree.

[thouc]

Eastern Wood-Pewee and Eastern Phoebe have two-toned calls.

[Brian Bailey]

Eastern Wood-Pewee and Eastern Phoebe have two-toned calls.

Good suggestion! A lot of the flycatchers have two-note or at least two-part calls and the size and behaviour fits.


BB

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