Perhaps what you heard was a male doing a "flutter call" which is a vocalization and not a wing sound.  AOU's Birds of North America describes it as follows:

 

A call frequently uttered by male is a series of twittered notes sounding almost like a slow trill. Described by Brewster (1882) as similar to whistling of wings and by A. A. Saunders (in Christy 1942:194) as like "the sound produced by the Mourning Dove in flight." Mumford (1964) refers to this as the Flutter Call, since male often produces it while hovering above a perch or fluttering from 1 perch to another. Typically 1-3 s in duration and often associated with typical tee-chup. 

 

 Stephen Hult

 Edgewater, MD

 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gerald & Laura Tarbell" <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 11:23 AM
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Soldier's Delight


>I was an Airman, not a soldier, but I still found the place delightful
> today. We got very good looks at three different male SUMMER TANAGERS and
> one female. At what point can we start calling them abundant?
>    Here's a question for the experts. We watched two different ACADIAN
> FLYCATCHERS. They would sing from a perch and then move to another while
> doing a fluttery display that appeared to be some sort of mating thing.
> However, when they were fluttering their wings we heard a chittery sort of
> sound that could remind you a bit of a woodcock. Is that sound made by their
> wings? We only heard it when they were fluttering, so my suspicion is that
> this is a wing noise we are hearing.
>    Jerry Tarbell
>    Carroll County
> 
>