Tim100 said:
Hello,
I know it is difficult to describe bird song but here goes. Both are birds heard in a town garden in the SE England
1 - If anyone knows the way football supporters chant "What a load of rubbish" then this describes the emphasis of this bird's tune.
2 - More shrill (quite loud too) than the above bird and the beat goes 1-2 1-2 1-2 1-2 at quite fast speeds sometimes just four or six beats but normally eight.
Difficult of course...
Could easily both be great tit, as they make a wide variety of calls, and individuals vary too. The second one sounds like a classic "tea-cher tea-cher" great tit call.
But your first one seems more like blue tit to me. The end of a longer song sounds unlikely, as you'd surely have noticed the rest of it., I think it must be something which repeats the same rhythm many times -- and that's just right for blue tit. "Bee d-d-d-d-d-d" would cover the rhythm I most often hear -- I can't remember having heard a "football chant" version, but it could be within the range of what they do, especially if done faster than the usual version. It's always a jazzy, cheeky little number.
I have encountered a few less-imaginative blackbirds which repeat certain phrases (one suburb I lived in had dozens which all sang the same dull little tune). Generally though they are fluent and imaginative, producing long musical fluty phrases. However it is still a bit early for blackbirds, at least out here in the country -- I've only heard one or two so far, on very warm mornings (unlike today...).
Song thrushes can also pick up rhythmic phrases -- most commonly phone rings and car alarms. You'd tend to hear the other parts of the song though, unless it was a way off, when you might perhaps only pick up bits of it. The characteristic thing about song thrush songs is that they think slower than blackbirds -- they have to repeat each phrase two or three times while they're making up the next one. (Mistle thrush is also short on imagination -- it keeps to only three or four similar notes, going for extreme volume instead of variety).
Eventually you'll see your bird singing or calling, and then you'll know...
There are two things I find particularly helpful with birdsong. One is to get familiar with the common ones -- and a suburban garden is a very good place to start this. The other is to have phrases or ideas to help remember the tone and rhythm. Classic examples are "Little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheeeeeeeeeeese" for yellowhammer song, and a fast-bowler's run-up for the chaffinch rhythm.
Richard
