Golden-Crowned Puzzle

Day 205: "Tsee-see, soo-soo! Tsee-see, soo-soo!" The pitch was the same as that of the Varied Thrush, but two sets of two syllables instead of one with the notes widely separated, and without the burriness of the Thrush's call. I hear the bird every spring and, to the best of my knowledge, had never laid eyes on it, or at least not to see it issuing the call. "Tsee-see, soo-soo!" was driving me nuts. I listened to every recording of bird calls I have in the house, including the full eight hours of "Birding By Ear," tried different internet sources for recordings and/or mnemonic guides, but nothing fit with the song I was hearing. It had to be a fairly common bird, so I sat out on my back porch, listening. Ten minutes into my vigil, I heard it at a distance. I tried whistling the call, knowing that I can do a passin' fair Varied Thrush owing to the fact that I don't whistle well; in fact, my whistle is thready and weak, somewhat doubled by a crooked front tooth. Sure enough, "Tsee-see, soo-soo!" echoed back to me from a nearby shrub. I whistled again. The response was immediate. Back and forth we went, talking to each other, until finally the bird moved into visual range. I whistled again, and the Golden-Crowned Sparrow perched on the end of the raspberry cage opened its beak and issued his reply. Satisfied that I had solved a mystery of some years' standing, I double-checked with Cornell Labs' "All About Birds" recordings. Yup, Golden-Crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia atricapilla. "Tsee-see, soo-soo!" to you too, sir!