Eastern Phoebe Calls (Learn their 3 sounds)
These flycatchers live up to their name by singing it for all to hear!
Eastern Phoebes have done really well for themselves, learning how to adapt to humans by building nests on man-made structures, making them very easy to spot wherever you are.
Eastern Phoebe Song and CALLS:
- Make sure to press PLAY on the audio files below. 🙂
Sound #1: “fee-bee”
Eastern Phoebes are helpful in very clearly singing out their name, “fee-bee”. You can hear two versions of the Eastern Phoebe song in this clip.
One sounds like the bird is stuttering through its song, and one sounds like the bird is sneezing at the end. Typically, the male only gives the stuttering version of this song after an altercation.
Sound #2: Chattering
You can hear in this clip a male Eastern Phoebe giving a chattering call interspersed with the ‘fee-bee’ song. Males tend to give this nasally chattering call when showing a female a good nest site.
Sound #3: Chirps
One of the hardest calls to identify are these simple chirps. Called by both males and females, these chirps are usually given during flight to communicate with each other.
Another Eastern Phoebe sound is a bill snap, usually given when an intruder is nearby. This bill snap is used to hopefully make the intruder think twice about entering a phoebe’s territory.
Have you heard the calls and sounds of an Eastern Phoebe before?
If so, please let us know below!
