Bird call advice

[johnspeth]

I'm hoping somebody can help me ID a bird making a call that I've heard most springs and summers as long as I've lived here (20+ years). I often hear the bird in tall tree areas but never see it. The low pitched woop makes directional reckoning difficult. I usually hike early in the mornings which is when I hear it. I can't remember hearing it after noon.

The call is a woop woop and usually a third woop. It's always very low in frequency (< 150 Hz). The total time of the three woops is about 1.5 seconds. I would think it have to come from an animal that is big enough to create that kind of low pitch resonance (like a big owl) but maybe not.

Can anyone identify that bird?

JJS

[retired jerry]

Ptarmigan? or some other Grouse?

[kaltbluter]

Take a look at the youtube video linked over here.

[Chazz]

Just watched that video. I swear I heard that low frequency "woop" going up the ridge on the Green Canyon Way last weekend. I thought it was some sort of owl but it's obvious (now) that it is a grouse.

[johnspeth]

Thanks. That video confirms it for me. And MSH is where I hear it most readily as in that trip report.

[retired jerry]

MSH - where Ptarmigan ridge is

[retired jerry]

Ptarmigan Trail - not ridge

[BurnsideBob]

I find the Cornell Ornithology website very useful. Their bird descriptions include recordings of the typical vocalizations of each bird. Here is their search page:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/search

Very cool site.