This recording is a little confused because there are a lot of them calling at once, but at certain points you can hear them go "Reykjavik! Reykjavik! Reykjavik!" It's too bad there are no least terns in Iceland.
This is a very variable song but I've found this particular variation to be the most common. It is usually transliterated as "teakettle teakettle teakettle" but I hear "tweet eater tweet eater tweet eater". Does this make more sense or less sense with the advent of Twitter?
Most field guides only transliterate the "type A" song of the yellow warbler, usually as "sweet sweet sweet sugary sweet!", which is accurate. However, I have often found the "type B" song, which is easily confused with those of some other warblers, to be just as common. Because the similar song of the chestnut-sided warbler used to be written "see see see Ms. Beecher", I put in a name for this yellow warbler song as well. I hear it as "see see see Chester Biddlechick".
I haven't seen this written out as words, but I hear "chewy chewy chewy chewy cheeeeese!!" (The first time on this recording is at 0:12)
This one really ruffles my feathers. In every field guide I've seen, this has been written as a hard or hoarse "chip-burr" or something like that - in a couple of cases "chip-churr" and in one instance even described as a dry rattle! The Audubon Society field guide comes closer by using the adjective "twanging", but still it transliterates it as "chip-burr". Nowhere does anyone come close to the metallic ringing quality I hear in this sound. I have always heard it as "tick-bang". The field guide descriptions actually led me astray, and before I saw a scarlet tanager making this sound, I couldn't identify the sound. Go out to your nearest woods or large park (if you're in eastern North America) and try to find this sound. It's a relatively common bird and they're nesting now. Tell me it isn't "tick-bang"!
-Elijah
