morning song

It is around 5.40 in the morning here, before dawn, and the Black Phoebe male is up, singing its heart out. "Pity?-Pitrew", he repeats over and over again, each cycle lasting about 3-6 seconds (first-phrase/pause/second-phrase/pause). The cycle is not perfectly regular. Occasionally he will repeat the first-phrase once or twice, or take a longer pause, and utter a series of weaker "seeuw's", which sound like a weak and truncated version of the second-phrase. Over one one-minute period I counted 10 double-phrases, and 5 repetitions of the first phrase. He is the only bird to be heard at this time. He started around 5.35, and as of now (5:56) is still going.