BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="AlanR" data-source="post: 1166338" data-attributes="member: 49974">My advice would be: Don't expect it to be easy.Books aren't that useful as the transcriptions don't mean much. You may hear something and write down a completely different transcription.Also lots of birds actually have lots of different songs and calls, not all of which are in the books.I have tried some CDs and I find I can't remember more than one or two at a time.After 15 months trying to learn bird sounds there are only a few I actually recognise.Going out with someone who knows or with a group of experts can be a real help. Ask them when you hear an unknown call/ song and even if you think you know it, ask for confirmation. (This helps your confidence.)Having said all that, keep at it because so many birds are very similar to look at and only really identifiable by their sounds.I hope you have more succes with this than I have so far!Alan</blockquote>