ID please - singing bird

[scrose]

This bird arrived in our yard (in Toronto near Runnymede & Dundas) on the evening of October 24. It's about the size of a cardinal. It is mostly greyish beige in colour with some black and white on its wings. The white on its wings is very prominent when it's in flight. Although not clear in this photo (click on the image for full size), there is also some white on its tail, which is fairly long. It seems to like to perch in visible open places; telephone wires and the uppermost branches of our birch trees.

However, what is most remarkable is the amount and variety of song this bird produces. It starts singing after the sun has risen and continues until midday. It either leaves or is quiet during the afternoon. At dusk it starts singing again for about half an hour, but with a simpler song, usually just a series of chirps.

I've managed to capture a recording of it. The first 25 seconds is the sound it makes in the evening. The remainder of the recording is the varied song it sings during the morning.

Can anyone please identify this fellow? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Northern Mockingbird

[scrose]

Thanks!

[Ron Luft]

No I'm not crazy. They seem to frequent railway tracks thru-0ut TO and also bird 'unfriendly' industrial areas. Wonder if they use "GO"?

[Napper]

Hey Ron

I have to agree with yu on that..  Meadowvale Mississauga Go station,  Downsview afb  airfield and near the tracks that cross Wilson ave.  at Sunrise propane..

Napper :roll:

[BC]

The resident Northern Mockingbird at my workplace (Symington and Dupont area) hangs around the train tracks all the time. It has stayed over the winter for at least two years.

[Brian Bailey]

I would definitely agree.  It's less noticeable now that they are more common, but 10 or 12 years ago when they were just starting to become more common around the GTA, I only found them in industrial areas.  Back then, the most reliable area I knew was around the Lakeview Generating Station.

At the time I thought it odd, but on reflection it seems more like a survival strategy.  As the "new species on the block", they went for the more marginal habitat where there was less competition.  Or maybe they discovered those marginal industrial type areas still have lots of insects but fewer places to hide.  Or maybe this is just a rambling stream of nonsense. :wink:

BB

[Carl-Adam]

I have seen about  four birds along the tracks from streetsville to union station. They love the grape vines and shrubs that grow beside the tracks.

[David Shilman]

How did you get those recordings, scrose?

[scrose]

I used a regular digital camera to record a series of movies (as .MOV files). I just stood in our backyard and held the camera in the direction of the bird. That was the easy part. Once I had the .MOV files on the computer, I used RAD Video Tools to extract the audio (as .WAV files), used Audacity to stitch together as a single file and chop out the unwanted bits, then used LAME to encode as an MP3, and finally uploaded it to Houndbite.

[David Shilman]

Sounds...simple?  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:

[scrose]

When you asked how I got the recordings, I wasn't sure if you were asking how I captured the actual recording or how I got it on the interwebs.
 
Like I said, recording with the camera was the easy part. :wink: I've worked with digital audio files in the past so the software manipulation wasn't too hard, just time consuming.