For a couple of years, every night in the spring and summer, we’d hear a bird chirping. It wasn’t like the long drawn out bird song you might hear in the mornings. It was more of a consistent succession of chirps–sometimes one at a time, and sometimes a rhythmic series of them. At one point, the chirper must have been in the red tip photinia right outside our bedroom window, and he kept us up with his serenade.
What bird sings at night? I wondered. I found an article that mentioned how Mockingbirds will sometimes chirp at night during mating season. But this didn’t sound even remotely like the Mockingbirds I’ve heard, which are bold and forceful in their singing.
Armed with a flashlight, I searched the bushes and trees around our backyard to no avail. Every time I got close to where the sound was coming from, he’d just clam up.
“It’s just Night Bird,” my husband said.
After a while, we just sort of let the mystery of Night Bird be. And so, whenever we’d hear it, we’d just say, “Night Bird.” Like, there he is, at it again.
A few months ago, I took up my sleuthing once more. I’m really not one to let things go. I call it persistence. You might call it being obsessive. Potayto, potahto. Anyway, one night, Night Bird was doing his thing, and I decided to go out and have a look. I started thinking about everything I know about birds, namely that when you get close to them, they fly off. So, if this indeed was a bird, it was being remarkably still. There wasn’t even the sound of rustling leaves or movement of any kind. Which led me to think…
It wasn’t a bird at all.
Suddenly I remembered the tree frog we found on our porch a few years back. It was making the strangest sounds. I knew that whatever Night Bird was, it wasn’t the same as the tree frog, but maybe it was some other kind of frog or toad.
So, I searched “frog call that sounds like a bird.” Boom! I had my answer. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, Night Bird. Also known as the Rio Grande Chirping Frog:
As you can probably guess, I just had to see this guy for myself. They are pretty small, so viewing them can be a challenge. In fact, all I managed to do was snap a picture as it was hopping away. Not a great shot, but it’s all I’ve got.
We still call him Night Bird, although, there is clearly more than one. Their calls seem to echo all over the backyard. Sometimes, I even hear them in the morning. I’ve looked and looked and I still haven’t been able to see one in person. But maybe one day, I’ll get lucky. One can hope. Or one can obsessively, er, I mean persistently look.
One day, Night Bird, one day.