Mystery bird song in Tasmania, Australia (1 Viewer)

[Tiraya]

At Melaleuca currently and this particular song has been plaguing us for a while. It's a very peculiar sequence that is only repeated once--often, it is not heard again for many hours.

It has three components. First, is a rising whistle that is similar to a steam engine or a kettle starting to boil. Secondly is a an odd sound that resembles a creaky gate opening and closing. The third component is a repetition of the second, given around two seconds after the previous. Each time we've heard it it has been this same order. In the best (and worst) description it is roughly like "pheeeeee ree-oh (2 second pause) ree-oh".

The bird inhabits dense shrubs in the open marsh/swamp areas. I can't possibly work out what it is. Now I will leave my phone recording sound most of the day, in the chance that I can record it.

Our common birds are striated fieldwren, Tas thornbill and scrubwren, emu-wren and olive whistler. Occasional dusky robin, NH honeyeater, yellow-throated honeyeater and superb fairywren. Could it be a variant of one of these??

 

[mjh73]

At Melaleuca currently and this particular song has been plaguing us for a while. It's a very peculiar sequence that is only repeated once--often, it is not heard again for many hours.

It has three components. First, is a rising whistle that is similar to a steam engine or a kettle starting to boil. Secondly is a an odd sound that resembles a creaky gate opening and closing. The third component is a repetition of the second, given around two seconds after the previous. Each time we've heard it it has been this same order. In the best (and worst) description it is roughly like "pheeeeee ree-oh (2 second pause) ree-oh".

The bird inhabits dense shrubs in the open marsh/swamp areas. I can't possibly work out what it is. Now I will leave my phone recording sound most of the day, in the chance that I can record it.

Our common birds are striated fieldwren, Tas thornbill and scrubwren, emu-wren and olive whistler. Occasional dusky robin, NH honeyeater, yellow-throated honeyeater and superb fairywren. Could it be a variant of one of these??

Got me stumped - suspect it will be easy with an actual recording of the call though - good luck!

 

[Tiraya]

I have obtained a poor quality recording today. The bird is always in dense cover and I have not seen even an inch of it so far. Now to find somewhere to upload it! This time it was a little different. Instead of a straight "pheeeeee" it started with a more notated "phi-phi-pheeeee", and the "seesaw/creaky gate" phrase was given three times rather than only twice. In addition, the phrases were much quicker, separated by perhaps only half a second instead of two seconds.

 

[Tiraya]

Looks like you can attach files here, didn't know it took audio. It's a bit hard to hear over the wind and the parrots, but the general gist is there.

 

[Tiraya]

Today I believe that beautiful firetail is the culprit. On walking past a pair of firetails, I mused myself with the idea that it could have been a courtshop song of sorts. As if on cue, the (presumed) male of the pair started bobbing and the sound came from the general direction. I could not see him make the sound specifically, but I have good thought to believe that is the source of the sound.