Songs. The Field Sparrow's most familiar song is a long, accelerating series of short whistles that build to a rapid trill. It lasts about 4 seconds and has the quality of a bouncing ball coming to rest.
House Sparrows have a rather simple song of one or a series of cheep or chirrup notes. It's mainly given by males, who repeat it incessantly during much of the year to announce that they possess a nest and to attract females.
Carolina Wren
What is this? The Carolina Wren is a tiny bird with a loud, distinctive song that includes several trills and warbles. But if you listen closely, you'll also hear some notes that sound suspiciously like they were produced by a human whistle.
The European Starling — the continent's most abundant non-native bird — is an accomplished mimic. Starlings are especially astute imitators of bird sounds that have a whistled feel — like the sound of a Killdeer or quail. They can duplicate a car alarm or phone ring, too.
Named for the often-heard “curra-wong” call, Pied Currawongs make a range of other vocalisations including loud ringing calls, gurgles and whistles.
By rubbing its special club-shaped secondary wing feathers against one another at the dizzying speed of 107 times per second — the fastest limb movement yet observed in a vertebrate — the Club-winged Manakin is able to produce a bizarre electronic-like sound.
The Australian Golden Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis) is a common songbird found in woodlands and forests throughout east and south-eastern Australia, as well as the south-west.
Brown-headed Nuthatches don't sing complicated songs, but they are plenty vocal. They make tiny squeaks that sound like a toy rubber ducky being squeezed.
If you've heard the sound of a bird that sounds like laughing you've probably already heard the call of the green woodpecker. The green woodpecker's call is one of the most readily identifiable sounds in nature so it isn't surprising that many local names for the green woodpecker are onomatopoeic.
Calls. American Robins often make a mumbled cuck or tuk to communicate with each other or a sharp yeep or peek as an alarm call. They also make a repeated chirr that rises in volume and can sound like a laugh or chuckle.
The most commonly heard is the classic gurgling croak, rising in pitch and seeming to come from the back of the throat. It's much deeper and more musical than a crow's simple, scratchy caw. Ravens make this call often.
The monkeys clatter to communicate with each other. A clatter is a rapid cackle like a baby's cry.
Olive Sparrows sing an accelerating series of chips that sounds like a bouncing ping-pong ball, often with a metallic quality. Sometimes the end of the song drops in pitch, other times the song is evenly pitched.
Ospreys have high-pitched, whistling voices. Their calls can be given as a slow succession of chirps during flight or as an alarm call—or strung together into a series that rises in intensity and then falls away, similar to the sound of a whistling kettle taken rapidly off a stove.
However, the Spotted Towhee's song sounds similar to the well-known "drink-your-tea" song of its eastern cousin. This is why a group of towhees is referred to as a "teapot." Another nickname for a group of towhees, a "tangle," is a nod to the bird's preferred habitat of thick shrubbery.
There is another bird, the yellow-headed blackbird, that has a call that sounds like a heavy door swinging on squeaky hinges.
The Cedar Waxwing's call sounds like a bicycle bell. It has a crested head and a very smooth-feathered body. This bird will nest later in the summer than most bird species.
The monotonous, repetitive call of the Common Ground-Dove brings to mind sultry and languid Southern summers, when the species' plaintive call is often heard; hence the colloquial name “moaning” dove.
Wompoo Fruit Dove – Typical calls in NSW (ssp magnificus)
XC295305 South-east Queensland & New South Wales are home to the nominate subspecies Ptilinopus magnificus magnificus. The typical calls of this taxon are a deep boomy 'womp-woo'.
When a Mourning Dove takes off or lands, it flaps its wings quickly. The air rushing through these special feathers makes them vibrate and create sound (kind of like a kazoo).
Imagine a sound vaguely like a cricket or grasshopper chirp. That is basically the essence of the song of a bird called the Henslow's sparrow.
The Juniper Titmouse sings a rapid and rolling series of 5 to 15 syllables that sounds almost like a video game.
They spend winters across the southern US, Mexico, and Central America. Watch for these tiny birds in the trees, constantly flicking their wings. Male kinglets will sometimes sing in the winter—their song sounds like a typewriter typing (you show your age if you know that sound!). Listen to the “chatter calls” here.
The fluffy white ptarmigan sounds more like a cartoon character (think Porky Pig or Glenn Quagmire) than an actual bird. Males use their nasally barks to impress females.