In his fourth blog on ‘How to be a Birder’, a new series written exclusively for Netvue, our Global Consultant STEPHEN MOSS gives his hints and tips on identifying birds by their songs and calls.
When it comes to bird identification, it’s easy to concentrate on the appearance of a bird. This is fine until you come across species that either look alike, or spend their time hidden from view in trees or bushes – like many songbirds. That's when a thorough knowledge of bird sounds comes into its own.
Long before we had access to visual aids such as binoculars and cameras, our ancestors learned to tell different species of bird apart by listening to the sounds they make – their songs and calls.
Indeed, as I noted in my book Mrs Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names (Guardian Faber, 2018), the very earliest bird names – including many that we still use today – are onomatopoeic, based on a version of the bird’s sound, adapted into a word.
Even today, with the huge panoply of optics available, we often hear a bird before we see it; indeed we may not see it at all. So learning bird sounds – especially of the common and familiar species that visit your garden or backyard – will really enhance your birding experience.
Songs and Calls
It’s important to understand the key difference between bird songs and calls. Fundamentally, songs are the musical signals sent by (usually male) birds, during the breeding season. They serve a dual purpose: simultaneously seeking to defend their breeding territory against rival males, while at the same time trying to attract a female – or for some species, several females – to be their mate and raise a brood of young together.
Songs are usually confined to spring and summer – though some birds do sing during the autumn and winter as well, as in the case of the European Robin, which defends a territory throughout the year.
But ‘spring’ is a very flexible concept in temperate areas of Europe and North America; many birds are already signing and defending territories at the start of the New Year, and may go on doing so into June and even July.
Songs are also usually more complex and ornate than calls. For example the Common Nightingale – probably the world’s most celebrated songster in music and poetry – might sing dozens of different musical phrases. But other species, such as the Common Chiffchaff or Red-eyed Vireo, have very brief and simple song phrases, which they repeat again and again – to the point where the human listener can become quite frustrated! Indeed one Red-eyed Vireo was observed singing over 20,000 times in just 14 hours – roughly one phrase uttered every two seconds or so! The vireo’s song is so repetitive and monotonous it has been nicknamed the ‘preacher bird’.
Bird calls serve a very different purpose – or series of purposes. These might be simple ‘contact calls’, usually a single note or two, uttered by flocks of tits and chickadees during the autumn and winter, when they stick together in loose groups to find food. Others are more urgent, such as the ringing alarm call of the Eurasian Blackbird, a very familiar sound in British gardens on spring and summer evenings.
Learning bird songs
Many birders find identifying birds by listening to their songs difficult. Some liken it to learning a foreign language – quite easy at first, when you are just mastering the basics; then much harder, as you realise that you have only scratched the surface of the problem; then finally comes the breakthrough, when you realise you have learned more than you thought! And just as it is with learning languages, some people just seem to have a talent for picking it up, while others struggle.
There are, however, several ways to help you ease the pain of learning. The first is to use mnemonics: little reminders that help you remember a particular species' call or song. The TV Presenter and top British birder Bill Oddie uses familiar names to remember bird calls – for example, 'Chiswick' is Pied Wagtail, while the repeated two-note call of the Great Tit has earned it the nickname of ‘teacher bird’! The song of the Yellowhammer has often been described as sounding like the bird is saying “a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheeese”, while the Chaffinch always sounds to me like a fast-bowling cricketer running up to deliver!
When I was learning birdsong as a teenager back in the 1970s, we only has access to long-playing records, which we had to listen to at home. Then came cassette tapes and contact discs, along with portable players allowing us to take them into the field. Now there are not only apps which play the birds’ sounds, but even ones that identify the bird for you – such as Merlin, from Cornell University. By all means use this, but make sure you do so as a learning device to help you identify the bird yourself in the future, not simply as an short-cut.
One of the best times of the year to learn how to identify birds by their song is the spring. For our resident breeders such as tits and thrushes, the courtship ritual is in full swing, and the male birds are singing to defend a territory and win a mate.
From a practical point of view, it's also a lot easier to catch sight of singing birds before the trees come into full leaf, and it helps your confidence no end if you can clinch your identification by actually seeing the bird as it sings.
Learning bird calls
To those of us without musical knowledge or training, learning bird songs can be a difficult chore. But at least they give you something to commit to memory – a tune, a descent of the scale, or perhaps a memorable flourish at the end.
In contrast, bird calls are frequently just a monosyllabic ‘tweet’ – the aural equivalent of the ‘little brown job’. Given this, and the inadequacy of human language to describe natural sounds, is it any wonder that many birders give up in despair?
But think again. You can learn bird calls, but unlike songs, which are easier to learn in spring, late autumn and winter is the ideal time of year to do so. Not only are many birds becoming active in search of food, but because there is little or no foliage on the trees, you can confirm your judgement by seeing the bird as well.
Bill Oddie taught me a good way to learn bird calls, by concentrating on three different elements: pitch, rhythm and tone. Judging the pitch of a lone bird call can be difficult unless you have a musical ear, so try to compare it with a familiar sound if you can – is it high, medium or low? Rhythm is easier to judge, for example is the sound metronomic or syncopated, fast or slow? However, with so many bird calls being monosyllabic it has its limitations.
Tone is perhaps the most subjective category of all. Everyone has their own personal reaction to a sound, with the words ‘fluty’, ‘thin’ and ‘reedy’ meaning slightly different things to different people. Other people use human emotions – a bird might seem sad or happy, angry or calm.
But with practice and persistence, you will be able to use these techniques to develop your own aural memory, opening up a whole new world of knowledge and understanding.
