I recorded this sound (with my iPhone, please excuse the poor quality) on 29 April 2012 near my house in Concord, MA. Have a listen and see what you think. For a little additional background information, which will also give you a hint, read the footnote below. ((This is a fairly common variant of the song of a common bird here in Massachusetts. I suspect that local birders, at least, will identify it easily, but I think it is specific to this area so I’m curious to know if it sounds familiar to birders from other regions.))
Click this link to listen to the sound:
MysterySound_ConcordMA_Apr2012_crop
And when you’re ready to know the answer click here.
I heard a Tufted Titmouse singing a very similar, what I though of as a whirring song, in Hartford, Vt a few months ago! The person with me who know birds better than I do thought it must be a second Carolina Wren until she actually saw the Titmouse singing the song. I think I still have the recording on my iPhone too!
I was recently serenaded by dozens of tufted titmice …. they came within a foot of me and sang
I’m in Northern California and have a recording I took from my backyard that I posted to my Facebook group, Birding By Ear California! As a mystery. When putting it through eBird’s bird net, it came back strong for a Tuffted Titmouse but we don’t have those here in Petaluma and so the mystery continued… finally someone suggested Oak Titmouse and I found it hard to believe. I know the Oak titmouse’s by my house and they didn’t sound like this. But then this Fall, I heard the call again as if flung straight out of the beak of an Oak Titmouse I watched as it perched on the fence in front of me. This is the exact call… it’s just clearer.