Birding by sound
Imbar Golt is a birder, and she’s blind – here, she shares her tips to help sighted birdwatchers identify birds by their songs and calls, only…
Tips on identifying birds by their songs and calls
Birds can be easy to spot and identify visually (well, that’s the theory!). However, what about foggy days, or birds hiding in thick undergrowth, or those that are deep within the branches of a tree, or those migrating by night? Here, you can learn the basics of how to identify and even count them by ear.
Choose your setting
Start by standing or sitting at the location where the birds you want to identify are supposed to be. In more general birding outings, first choose a spot with sparse trees or bushes, so there won’t be too many species coming from all directions to confuse you. After you’ve settled, avoid unnecessary noise and movement. Concentrate for 10-15 minutes on listening to the ambient noises and the birds around you. At your own pace, see if you can phase out the noises and concentrate on bird calls. Then choose one that is the loudest, closest, or most peculiar. Use your field guide to identify the bird visually if possible, so you know what bird made the sound. Get as close as possible to the sound source, so you will not confuse the sound with the wrong bird. In some field-guides there are onomatopeic ‘words’ to represent sounds, but I personally have not found them very useful. They seem to give sounds that I never heard any bird making!
Broaden your knowledge
After you’ve identified the first bird, continue on to more species, not too many at first, so you’ll be able to remember and retain the memory of the distinctive call of each species. You can also use CDS, tapes, or go online for bird calls, but remember that most may sound different in the field, as recording distorts sounds, just like people’s voices change when you talk to them on the phone. And conditions may make field identification more difficult once you’re out on a birding trip. Wind, echoes and tall trees can all distort the sound or make it feel as if it’s coming from a different location to reality.
Listen for song
When you’ve become more adept at recognising birds by their call, move on to song. Some birds have very ‘poor’ singing abilities, so their songs are close in pitch and style or sound-pattern to their call. But most birds strive to outdo any other male in their vicinity, so their songs will be more elaborate, as far as the natural abilities of the species go. Non-birders, and even beginners, occasionally remark that all birds sound the same. But, even if you do not know the difference between similar songbirds such as a Song Thrush and a Blackbird, you still know that only the males sing (the Robin is the one exception here, with Robins singing a song in winter), and that the loudest, most persistent singing will occur in the breeding season, and the months immediately preceding it.
Small but loud
There are other factors to bear in mind. It seems logical that a small bird will sound weaker than a larger bird, and that’s often the case, but there are plenty of exceptions – Wrens are tiny but astonishingly loud. The habitat should also provide clues as to what species can be found in a certain location and thus help eliminate confusion species. To differentiate between very close species, you need to break down the song or call into its component characteristics, such as what clicks, or whistles, it has and how many. At night, owls and nightjars have distinct calls, but what about migrating birds? Studies have shown many species have different calls when they communicate within a flock at night than their usual daytime calls, so there’s no substitute for learning them in the field, with the help of sound guides online. Naturally, a single bird sounds very different from a flock of 100. However, counting up to 10 or 20 individuals can be tricky, so divide the sky or ground, where the flock is, into three or more areas, such as left, right and centre. It might be difficult when there are no visual points of reference, but just as you hear a song in stereo, there is what’s heard in your right ear, what’s heard in the left, and what’s in between. Think of it as dividing an audience in a hall into three, in order to sing a part-song. Just like the human audience, the birds can be all around you or right in front of you, so map the area of the calls with your ears and then divide it into segments. Now, concentrate on listening to how many individuals make the same calls. Listen closely to each one as you ‘scan’ the sky from left to right or vice-versa with your ears.
Train your ears
As time goes by, this peculiar activity will become easier and faster, and you’ll know immediately if the flock is of 10, 30 or 100 birds, just by being familiar with how flocks with different numbers of individuals are supposed to sound. Of course, visual counting helps, but think that you are training your ears for the times you will not be able to see all or any of the birds. Maybe as you get more proficient at listening, you will, like me, be able to recognise a bird’s call or song while in a speeding vehicle.