pair of eastern towhee, pair of cardinals, blue jays, mockingbirds, white throated sparrows, dark eyed juncos, mourning dove, hosps, starlings (chased away) and a black billed, phoebe or peewee head shaped gray bird with a beautiful and loud early a.m song heard from neighbors chimney.
any comments?

yeah, wtf.

Okay...getting back to the original poster. Millymoo, I didn't sit down and think really hard about the sound you described (so forgive me if I overlook something simple), but what I do when I do not know a bird call is I use the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds website. I can typically narrow down the approximate type of bird that I am hearing and I just begin navigating the website.

Perhaps begin with Northern Cardinal (they do make many different types of calls/songs but their vocal style and clarity remains the same). I can say that the N. Cardinal does vocalize a crisp, loud, clear "birdie, birdie, birdie" song that is quite common. Could be what you heard.

Here is a link that might be useful: Begin Here

This post was edited by TMFF on Wed, Apr 24, 13 at 20:13

My guess is its either a Titmouse or a Carolina wren.

Thanks for your replies. I have checked out the Cornell Lab bird site before & listened to the cardinal calls & while there were similarities; I felt the cardinal calls were higher pitched to what I've heard in my yard. Unfortunately, I'm at work & can't listen to different bird calls on the site-will get strange looks no doubt! heh, heh! Will check it out later!

Some birds make variations of their usual calls......like the Titmouse and Carolina wren. I'm finding that especially so this year, for some reason.

I agree that even common birds sometimes suprise me with new or different songs/calls. Plus every spring I have to relearn most of them! Just today I heard something that sounded sorta like a Blue jay but not quite. After finally finding it in the treetops it was a jay but still sounded different to me. BTW I've been birding, mostly backyard birding for 40+ years so ya learn something new everyday.
Susan

I will conceed that birds I felt I knew all their calls are capable of a larger repertoire of noises. My husband is convinced a cardinal made this call so I'll believe him since you've all made me realize that birds aren't 'one-trick-ponies' but are capable of much more vocalization than I imagined.

The cardinals at our former home(different city) never made this noise but the happy cardinals in our Niagara Falls neighborhood clearly do. Go figure!

I highly recommend the Cornell site for IDing birds by sound. I was able to identify a Yellow Breasted Chat without seeing it! I've only heard it. You may have to go through some before you ID your mystery bird.