CLOSED: Night calling bird in New Mexico

Greetings. There's a bird near my apartment in Las Cruces, southern New Mexico, that I hear frequently at night but have never bothered to try to ID. Last night I realized I could record it on my cell phone, so I'm hoping you guys can ID it from the call. There's a sound file online here: http://polyploid.net/temp/274811767_929794032_0.vnd.qcel

It calls only at night, stopping before dawn. The call is repeated without any apparent variation (thus not a mockingbird, etc.). It doesn't seem to move when calling, but seems to stay in one tree and call more or less continuously for several hours.

Any help?

Thanks,
Patrick

Sound system on my computer is bust, so sorry, I can't help here :-(

Is it definitely a bird, or could it be an insect, or an amphibian, etc?

Resin

Definitely a bird. Not sure how to describe it verbally, though.

Hi Patrick, my windows computer won't open the file. I get the extension of .vnd.qcel
is that right? I did a search for programs to open the file & came up empty.
I'm really interested to hear it.

Yeah, I'm not familiar with that extension either. It's what I get off my Verizon cell phone, though. On my office computer (a Mac running OS 10.3.9, FWIW) QuickTime Player 7.3 recognizes it and plays it just fine.

Out of random curiosity I renamed it as a .mpg. After doing so, it seems to work fine in my browser (whereas earlier I was having to download & open it). So... try this: http://polyploid.net/temp/274811767_929794032_0.mpg

Thanks,
Patrick


This message was edited May 12, 2008 3:50 PM

Sorry I can't get the second one to open either.

Bah humbug. Not sure what to say, then.

Geeze, that sounds like a parakeet to me! But I'm not a bird expert at all.

The second file opened fine for me. Reminds me of a Thrasher. They make the sweetest sounds even though that intent eye of theirs can make them look a little mean. I wonder if jerryoldenettel can help you.

Angele-- Thansk; it does sound in some ways like a thrasher, but those shouldn't be repeating a single song without variation, I don't think. Now that you mention it, though, I should definitely ask jerryoldenettel; didn't realize he was on Dave's Garden, actually, but he's one of my contacts on Flickr.

Patrick

:-) I haven't seen him on Dave's either but he sure would be great to have here along with Bob (NatureNM).

Ah. So I guess I'm just easily confused when people show up in multiple places. :-)

Anyways, jerryoldenettel did indeed have the answer: western kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis).

Patrick

Hehe, I count you three as NM treasures, no kidding. Always grateful that you generously share and help novices.

Now with that said, I do have a green-headed snake Kent photographed that I haven't been able to id. ;-)

So is there a picture of this snake? :-)

I just did... here in the wildlife forum - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/847599/
thanks for looking