Who is the Bicycle pump bird?

06/16/2017 - 04:14

Who is the Bicycle pump bird?

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I would guess you have a strange bicycle pump! Seriously, do you have any idea what it looks like? Do you hear this near the coast or mountains and is it night or day? What could be considered strange sounding birds there that I know are bee eaters, owls, golden oriole and many of the heron family. If you have not already used it, this Xeno site is good for checking bird calls.

Having another listen to the Oriole here I think it may be that as I can imagine it now being described so. Not the best of recordings, but the "who are you" bit as it is known could well be what you are after. A very hard bird to see at times, but we seen 2 males this year who were on full view for all of 5-10 minutes on our land, beautiful sight.

According to an RSPB site Great TitWatch for bold, cheeky great tits on the feeders. Their distinctive song is prominent in spring - it sounds like a squeaky bicycle pump and is often described as 'teacher, teacher...' Males and females both have a black stripe on their belly, which is wider in males. 

Not your commoner garden Great Tit surely? Although they are also a beautiful bird when I don’t just take them for granted. Last two years a pair have nested in one of our plum trees just outside and from our balcony we sat and watched as they industrially fed their chicks last year. The very chicks decided to flop out the nest during one of the worst rain storms of the year. Sadly we found 3 dead around the nest area, but no sight of the rest (3-4 more), so we like to believe they survived.

If you place the outlet of the bicycle pump under your bottom lip as if blowing a flute with the handle of the pump fully extended, blow into the pump and push the handle upwards as if playing a trombone, this is the sound of the bicycle pump bird