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Learning Bird Calls and Songs (1 Viewer)

Dawn_Chorus

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I am trying to learn Bird Calls and Songs and I am finding it tough going Can anyone give me any help/tips at all Thanks for any help you can give.
 
I am trying to learn Bird Calls and Songs and I am finding it tough going Can anyone give me any help/tips at all Thanks for any help you can give.

First off, don't get too down. It is not easy - at least I don't know anyone that found it easy. Practice is the key, but personally speaking I found it easier to learn the songs and calls when I could actually see the bird. Once you have the common ones the rest come easier. It also helps to go out with someone who can ID birds by call and song.

Good luck.:t:
 
Yes, and try to take them one species at a time, i.e. don't try to do too much too quickly. This is the ideal time of the year to start, because few species are singing now: you can learn those, and pick up more as they start up in the New Year.
 
I've learned hundreds of calls and I'm not really sure what the secret is other than that I automatically look for patterns in the call, especially when separating similar species. I never write it down, but I do visualise the pattern of the call and repeat it to myself. Certainly seeing the bird making the call does help, as does having CDs or whatever of bird calls.

Often I divide similar bird calls into pairs if they are similar: Blackcap and Garden Warbler for example. Oddly, I had a hell of a job separating these two at first, but now they sound really different to me. Similarly, the different Scrubwrens here in Far North Queensland where there are three species that sound really similar; in this instance discernible patterns are vital.

It takes time... spending hours in the field, hearing a call and seeing the bird making the sound is still for me the best way of learning, and if you enjoy the process all the better, as you will always struggle if you see it as a chore.
 
I'm trying to learn too, and am about to start in earnest on Simon Barnes's book "Birdwatching with your Eyes Closed". As others have said, this is a good time of year to start as robins are pretty much the only birds you'll hear singing. The book goes on to describe species as they in in the chorus in the spring. There's an accompanying set of sound recordings, but I have found that birds' live performances often depart from their studio work, so I recommend learning from multiple sources. For this reason, I like Barnes's colourful descriptions of birds' voices and characters.

The other sound recordings I use are:

  • a double CD set that was given away by a newspaper some years ago purchased for buttons on eBay
  • The RSPB website
  • The Collins Bird Guide app on iOS
  • The Aves Vox app on iOS
  • An app called Chirp!
  • An app called iBird UK

As I said, even the most characteristic species such as Blue Tits can sound very different from any given recording, so I think you need a few examples.
 
Many thanks for your advice which is appreciated. I have bought the full set of Tweet of the Day CDs by Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss which I am finding really good. It's coming along sloooowly but as it been mentioned in the posts it better to just try and memorise a couple at a time. No magic bullet for learning bird song and calls
 
First off, don't get too down. It is not easy - at least I don't know anyone that found it easy. Practice is the key, but personally speaking I found it easier to learn the songs and calls when I could actually see the bird. Once you have the common ones the rest come easier. It also helps to go out with someone who can ID birds by call and song.

Good luck.:t:

I agree with Craig. Sitting down and trying to digest and learn vocalisations from recordings really isn't the answer, though they can be a help if you get stuck. I found that the best way to do it was to listen for something that you don't recognise and track it down until you find it and actually see it singing. In that way I found that it tended to 'stick' more easily. Practice is definitely the key! Try visiting http://www.xeno-canto.org/ - its a fantastic resource that has recordings of bird vocalisations from all over the world.
 
There is also this website, quite an interesting source for thousands of birdcalls.

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/

As for me, its a mixture of home listening (with some book support for rythms and visuals) and then calmly sitting in areas where I more or less know what's living there and trying to identify the little guys (prior or after spotting).
I've been going at it for a short while (the call and song ID9 and I must say I feel it's a rather exponential jump forward, that really requires a lot of effort... but the outcome is amazing, specially in harder birding areas such a shrub or forest, where you can hear them but not see them.
Good luck
 
When I first started birding in the early 1980's I was hopeless at bird song but in May 1986 I went along to a dawn chorus meeting at 4am in Jesmond Dene just outside Newcastle. Actually being there with an expert and being able to SEE the birds singing helped them stick in my memory and after that it was just a case of always trying to see the bird that was making a particular call/song :t: I'm not too bad now and can recognise most UK species I'll come across but I still like to 'swot up' on warbler songs etc every spring so I know what to listen out for :king:

The main thing is to just relax and enjoy the birds and not stress yourself about remembering the call - it will all come in time and stick in your memory as you do more and more :t: Perhaps next year, around early May, your local birdwatching group or Wildlife Trust might organise a dawn chorus walk that you could attend - I certainly found the ones I've been on absolutely fantastic for improving my skills.....and if you are anything like I was in 1986 you'll be blown away at the sheer NOISE of the chorus once it really gets going - it's awesome!
 
This is something that I am actively trying to get to grips with also. I have a CD in the van that I drive, and sometimes pull up near a wood to try and identify any I heard on the CD. Very difficult. I saw Gills reply about the dawn chorus walk and I believe they hold those near me at a few venues in Suffolk. I'm booking one for 2015 and maybe a few more.
 
Maybe not a "tip" or "trick" but some encouragement... (???) :t:

I am a fairly new birder and admittedly am pretty terrible at this also.

HOWEVER I have tried to learn the common ones and using online sites and downloaded bird apps have studied the less common ones, but for birds I want to see, or might see.

It will actually start coming to you SLOWLY. Yesterday while watching a bald eagle nest with my 8 year old nephew and a friend, we were talking quietly and among all the other bird sounds in the woods (and cars and gunshots in the distance) I picked out the eagle's mate's call upriver from the nest well off into the distance. AND I WASN'T EVEN SPECIFICALLY LISTENING. This was while my nephew was swinging a stick back-and-forth and my friend was in mid-sentence.

Today I was at a local lake and seen a Belted Kingfisher fly by (one of my favorites) and I stopped (this was at a large empty boat access area.) I lowered my windows and began watching some Canadian Geese and talking to my dog (I do that!) and I heard the kingfisher again. Again...I was not even specifically listening as I'd shifted to the Canadians. I know this is because 2 or 3 years ago I made several trips to TRY to get photos of a BK and I played the iBird and Whatbird.com sounds relentlessly for several weeks, as well as hearing them a few times in the wild. But other than that I haven't even SEEN but two since and haven't heard the call at all since.

By the way-cool forum name!
 
Learning birdsong is fun and rewarding , but challengeing aswell. First , if you have a phone/tablet , download and app that has birdsong on it or use the RSPB bird guide online, which has birdsong on it. First learn the common songs/calls - Woodpigeon , Blackbird , Jackdaw , Wren , Great Tit e.g. A great way to learn these is to use sayings , for example a Woodpigeon could be - 'Who cooks for you , oh ...' and a Great Tit could be - 'Teacher Teacher!'. Make up your own or use some in books. Spend time watching YouTube/ listening to recordings vids (the BTO Channel do a lot of bird ID , including songs) and you will soon learn. You can also buy DVDS with birdsong/calls on. But the best way to learn is out on the field. Watch birds and note their song in a birding book. Soon you will become familiar with lots of birdsong , aslong as you stick to it!
 
I agree with Craig. Sitting down and trying to digest and learn vocalisations from recordings really isn't the answer, though they can be a help if you get stuck. I found that the best way to do it was to listen for something that you don't recognise and track it down until you find it and actually see it singing. In that way I found that it tended to 'stick' more easily. Practice is definitely the key! Try visiting http://www.xeno-canto.org/ - its a fantastic resource that has recordings of bird vocalisations from all over the world.

Yes, indeed, - the 'xeno' website has a wealth of all sorts of calls, e.g. flight, alarm calls, including songs, the lot; brilliant resource, I use it all the time.

Keep at it - it's well worth the effort. :t:
 
Hi Birdgirl, Yes in time you become familiar with birdsong I know a lot of local/resident bird song even when it Comes to warblers thou they can become a challenge at times I still occasionally find a skulking Lesser whitethroat which will occasionally throw out a few notes not as in full song difficult to separate from a Similar
Skulking common whitethroat again only throwing out a few notes surpriseing how you can lose track, in the Same Way perhaps as a blackcap or garden warbler doing the same, I find it a lot easier to hear the birds in full song, thou occasionally but rarely as I don,t really venture far away from my normal area a bird will sing And I,ll have no Idea what it is this happened to me in derby along a tree lined Ivy clad strech bordering both Sides of a stream lots of Ivy on the ground and overgrown with natural vegetation in places where trees have Come down naturally one of the few place,s the council does not Interfere with in derby, but yes it was a week Ago and this bird broke out into song I could not place the song in my mind to other or similar bird songs, its times like that you wish you had some recording Equipment with you I was travelling somewhere so I could,nt Hang around or else I would of done thou birds like that if they get spooked/disturbed they can quickly Disappear off the radar, could have been a caged bird that had escaped I just will never know there can be Plenty of frustration in bird watching haha thats for sure but I never lose my Enjoyment of it, funnily Enough The other year there was a bird in song in some local woodland near me and thou I had more time to Study Where the bird was up above me in the tree canopy I just could not Identify the song in my mind or see the Bird which thou quite close was out of view I can,t remember now if there were many leaves out the bluebells were in flower but it was quite early for oak and ash to be out, It was a pleasant but quite song and Eventually Just stopped I did everything right not to spook the bird and gave myself the best possible chance to Id it so I
felt ok in that way but still recording Equipment would have been Ideal again, I could not Id this bird on the Internet or the one last week so these things do happen where ever you may be.
 
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