shorebirds

Songs and calls of some New York State birds

Other Shorebirds

All files are mp3 files.
Images are adapted from drawings by Chester A. Reed, B. S. in Chapman.

Great Blue Heron
Ardea herodias
When disturbed, "a slow series fraank, fraank, fraank, taaaw, taaaw, last notes lower, croaking" (Sibley)
Same bird, disturbed again one week later.
Long Island, January 2013.

Great Egret
Ardea alba
"Very deep, low gravelly kroow, ..., fading at end" (Sibley)
Long Island, May 2001.

Snowy Egret
Egretta thula
"Hoarse, rasping raaar or nasal hraaa " (Sibley)
Long Island, September 2017.

Green Heron
Butorides virescens
Juvenile calling for food.
Juvenile, less vocal.
Long Island, July 2017.
"a startling scow" (Chapman)
Long Island, May, 2021.

Black-crowned Night Heron
Nycticorax nycticorax
"A flat quok! or quark!" (Peterson)
Long Island, May 1999.

Killdeer
Charadrius vociferus

Long Island, March 1999.

Piping Plover
Charadrius melodus
Peep-lo (Peterson)
"A plaintive whistle" (Peterson)
Two Piping Plovers facing off.
Long Island, July 1997.

Semipalmated Sandpiper
Caladris pusilla

Long Island, April 2002.

Long Island, April 2004.

Western Sandpiper
Caladris mauri

Long Island, April 2004.

American Woodcock
Scolopax minor

"a nasal beezp"(Peterson)

Woodcock: Note the tiny prelude to each beezp. Freqency range 0-7350Hz.
Long Island, Spring 2005

Woodcock's aerial courtship display. The display usually lasts around one and a half minutes.
These recordings were made using a 13in. parabolic reflector but the signal/noise ratio is still very poor.
The punctuated band of noise at 2700Hz is the Spring Peepers.
Click on sonograms for a larger image.

1. Beginning of display.
The last beezp usually flatter than the rest: (beeap), and is followed by the sound of the wings during takeoff.

2. "a series of trills produced by wings during ascent"(Audubon 1)

3. "during descent low whistled notes with a liquid, `kissing' quality, normally in groups of three: chew-chew-chew, chip-chip-chip, chew-chew-chew, chip-chip-chip." (Audubon 1)
Clicking on this image leads to the sonogram of two "groups," from a recording on Long Island, Spring 2005. Frequency range 0-11025Hz.

4. "the courship call terminates abrubtly upon landing" (Audubon 1)
and the next series of bzeeps begins.

Condensed version
Sometimes the "low whistled notes" start right after takeoff.
Woodbridge, CT, April 2001.