153 Musicians 2

Harsh metallic rolling far carrying cree cree. Simpson and Day

Wailing kee-aaah; staccato growl. Simpson and Day.

Voice rather harsh, metallic and abrupt, yet not unpleasant: ‘chirrink-chirrink, chirrink-chirrink’ and variations ‘chzink-chzink’, ‘czink-czink-czink-czink’; in alarm, harsh, scolding, rasping screeches. Morecombe

loud, raucous, unpleasant screeches, usually an intermix of harsh and sharp sounds, varying from deep, grinding and guttural to powerful, piercing screeches of ear-splitting intensity: ‘airrrik, aarrrk, ahrk, aieirrk, aieirieik!’. Morcombe

High far carrying rolling cweeree. Simpson and Day

In flight gives frequent, quite pleasant, softly rasping or vibrating musical screeches; softer mellow chattering and subdued screeches while feeding; quiet twittering while resting. Morecombe

Brassy crillik-crillik in flight. Simpson and Day

Call in flight is an abrupt ‘czik-czik-, czik-czik-’. From trees gives high but soft, thin and slightly tremulous ‘fee-e-fee-e-fe-e’ or ‘fwe-we-we-wee’ Simpson and Day

Continuous chirrup; zitting alarm call. Simpson and Day

Voice is a harsh, ‘kar, kar,ka, ka-ka-kakaka loud and slow, gradually more rapid, then fading. At nest, loud, brassy cacklings and clicking sounds.

keh-keh-keh’ and a harsh, deep ‘uk-uk-urk’. A sharp croak is used as an alarm call.

Usually silent, but various cacklings, loud ticking, deep gutteral grunting in breeding colonies.

Usually silent but some ticking and croaking among birds in fishing flocks; gutteral croaks and tickings at nest.

Voice deep with resonant croaks and gutteral grunting.

Unusual musical rolling purring or churring note. Pizzey

Typical call is a peevish ‘kissik, kissik’ or quizeek’ Pizzey

Far-carrying ‘pee-ew, pee-ew’; also chill-chill....kee-lick, kee-lick’. Pizzey

Slightly descending ‘chiff-chiff-chiff-joey-joey-joey’ or ‘deet-deet-deet-dip-dip-dip-dip-drrr’ ending in a canary-like trill. Pizzey.

A frequently repeated sequence is a rollicking ‘orry-orry-orriole’, quite clearly pronouncing itself to be an ‘oriole’. The song is a prolonged version of the call, wandering through similar sequences of notes, often with mimicry of other birds, ‘quiee-kwee-kworri-kworriole’; also varied querulous squawking and rasping sounds.

Short sharp yelps ‘pow! pow! pow!. Many soft musical calls. Simpson and Day

Male utters the well-known ‘harbinger-of-spring’ call: upward scale of about eight whistled notes, the second note slightly below the first, the rising in a quarter-tone or cromatic scale; uttered persistently day and night. Pizzey

A shrill far-carrying deliberate, usually descending phrase of about 7 or 8 notes, ‘fear-fear-fear...’ repeated shrill rising phrases ‘Where’s the tea Pete’ becoming demented.

A quite descending mournful ‘peeeeeeer’, singly or repeated, livelier ‘pee-o-wit-pee-o-weer’ repeated. Pizzey

Single long descending ‘tseeeeuw’, ‘prrelll’ or ‘pir-r-r’, repeated persistently. Pizzey

Somwhat like a person whistling a dog; clear high pitched deliberate ‘feee, feee, feee, feee’, each note rising at the end: often ends in descending ‘pee-eerr’. Stacatto notes. Pizzey

Voice awful.‘awrrk, aworrk, oirrk, oik-oik-oik’

Deep hollow ‘coop-coop-coop-coop-coop-coop’, slow at first, accelerating and descending like liquid glugging from a bottle; also harsh, though not loud, scolding notes. Pizzey.