Thread by @LevParikian

Morning everyone. Following on from yesterday’s Ten Birds, today let’s just have five.

Five birds that go ‘coo’. #FiveBirds

The first and most obvious cooer is the familiar (and much reviled) feral pigeon. Its common sound is a low-level clucking coo. xeno-canto.org/460854 #FiveBirds

Also familiar to most people will be the plumptious wood pigeon. Note its white collar, which is a good identifying mark.

They sing a lilting five-note song, sometimes quite throaty. xeno-canto.org/648349 #FiveBirds

The collared dove, slighter and more elegant than the wood pigeon, opts for a three-note rhythm, often likened to a football fan chanting ‘Un-i-ted – Un-i-ted’. #FiveBirds xeno-canto.org/671545

The stock dove is less common, but do look out for their uniform grey plumage and black button eye – they sometimes hang out with their feral cousins. Their song is a two-noter. Woo-hup. xeno-canto.org/558811 #FiveBirds

My rule of thumb for remembering the pigeons/doves:
Stock dove – two syllables in the name, two notes in the song
Collared dove – three syllables, three notes
Bloody wood pigeon – five syllables, five notes

Our final coo-er is also a cuck-er. Sadly, the cuckoo’s evocative sound, once ubiquitous, is in many places a thing of the past. xeno-canto.org/447343 #FiveBirds

So those are a few cooers. All the birdsong is here. Have an excellent day. levparikian.com/index.php/twit…