A whistle from the hedge at breakfast. Something screaming in the trees at 2 a.m. You heard it once, and now you want a name.

Tell us what it sounded like, when you heard it and roughly where. We'll line up the likeliest birds, each with a real recording, so you can press play and check.

Step 1: What did it sound like?

Pick the closest word. If two fit, pick the one you'd say first.

Step 2: When did you hear it?
Set from today's date. Change it if you heard it another time of year.
Step 3: Where were you? (optional)
What kind of place?
Remember more? Add pitch and rhythm
How high was it?
What was the rhythm?

Your likeliest birds

Pick a sound or a time, and your likeliest birds show up here.

Browse every bird by sound

All 20 birds the helper knows, filed under the words people use for what they heard. A bird shows up under every word that fits one of its calls or songs. Open a word and press play, or follow a bird's name to every sound it makes.

Whistle

Clear notes, like a person whistling12 birds

Screech

Harsh, rasping, hard on the ears8 birds

Scream

Loud and piercing, like someone yelling4 birds

Hoot

Deep, round hoo notes3 birds

Squeak

Like a dog toy or a rusty gate5 birds

Horse whinny

Shaky notes falling down the scale1 bird

Trill

Fast notes blurred into one purr6 birds

Chirp or chip

Short, sharp single notes8 birds

Says a phrase

Words you can hear, like peter-peter4 birds

Warble

A tumbling, musical jumble3 birds

Chatter or scold

Fast, harsh, cross-sounding notes11 birds

Rattle

Dry and clattering, like a stick on a fence6 birds

Buzz

Insect-like, nasal or raspy4 birds

Laugh

Cackling, like monkeys or a laughing crowd2 birds

Wail or moan

Long, rising and falling, a bit eerie4 birds

Copycat

Sounds like other birds, or a car alarm2 birds

Peent

One nasal, buzzy note, again and again1 bird

Hiss

Like air leaking from a tire3 birds

Clack or knock

Hard clicks or snaps, not a voice4 birds

Boom or whoosh

A deep rush of air, like a car passing1 bird

Next time, catch it in the act

A description gets you a shortlist. A recording gets you a name. Wings & Whistles listens with you, names the bird and keeps the clip, so tonight's mystery sound is one you know by ear next week.

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Already have a recording? The Birdsong Isolator separates the bird from traffic, wind and other birds.

Questions people ask

What bird sings at night?

A long, rambling song after dark, each phrase repeated a few times before the next, is a Northern Mockingbird. Night singers are mostly unmated males, on spring and early summer nights, often around the full moon. In eastern woods, a loud WHIP-poor-WILL repeated with hardly a breath is the Eastern Whip-poor-will, busiest at dusk, before dawn and on moonlit nights. On a northern lake in late spring or summer, from Maine to Minnesota and up into Alaska, a long cry that climbs and slides back down is a Common Loon.

What bird screeches at night?

Across most of the US, often an American Barn Owl: a harsh, hissing scream a second or two long, like radio static switched on and off, frequently given in flight over open fields. In summer and early fall, loud, squeaky shrieks from the same patch of trees night after night are usually young Great Horned Owls begging for food. Despite the name, Eastern Screech-Owls rarely screech; their everyday night sounds are a falling whinny and a long, even trill.

What bird hoots at night?

Two owls do most of the hooting. A Barred Owl gives eight or nine loud, barking hoots in two phrases, who cooks for you, who cooks for you-all, usually in big, wet woods. A Great Horned Owl is deeper and softer, four or five hoots in a stuttering rhythm, hoo, h’HOO, hoo, hoo, and hoots most from about November into January.

What bird sounds like a horse whinnying at night?

An Eastern Screech-Owl. Its song is a quavering, whistled whinny that starts high and trembles down the scale, over in two seconds or less, and it often runs straight into a long, level trill on one note. You can hear both after dark in any month, in backyards and city parks across the eastern two-thirds of the US.

How does this pick a bird?

It compares what you remember with a sound profile for each bird: what each of its sounds is like, its pitch and rhythm, the hours it calls, the months it is most vocal, where it lives, and the states where our range data places it. The sound counts most, then the time of day. Right now it knows 20 birds, and every profile is fact-checked against published sources before it goes live. If yours isn't one of them yet, a recording is the surest way to a name.