BIRDSONG: THE BASICS
Before getting bogged down in the sounds of individual species, your ‘First Base’ is to ensure that you’ve got the basic terminology sorted. First up, the difference between songs and calls. Songs are given mainly (but not exclusively) by male birds, and ‘technically’ only by the songbirds, the passerines – thrushes, warblers and the like. It tends to be a seasonal thing, primarily in ‘spring’ (which can be anywhere from mid-winter through to late summer). And why do they sing? There are two main reasons: to attract a mate and to defend a territory. Many non-passerines have calls that serve much the same purpose as song, but these are in-built, hard-wired, and are usually tagged as advertising calls or display calls. However, some seem musical enough to our ears to think of as songs, such as those of pigeons and doves.
Variety is the spice
As well as songs and display calls, birds make a whole suite of other calls, which are usually short sounds, although they can be repeated many times in succession. Each serves a particular purpose: sounds you can ascribe a ‘meaning’ to, such as “Feed me, feed me” begging calls of young birds, “I’ve spotted danger” alarm calls, “Where are you?” and “I’m here” contact calls, and “I found this food first, so butt out” aggression calls. Each song or call is made up of a number of individual notes. In a song, these tend to be joined in a stream, with a clear start and finish which, to keep it simple, I call verses. Some birds, like the Blue Tit, sing short verses; some such as the Sky Lark sing very long verses which can continue without pause for several minutes.