Best of British

Some bird sounds are so enchanting, attention-grabbing, or even amusing, that you can’t fail to be impressed. Here are 10 of Adrian’s favourites...

Black Grouse

At dawn on a few upland moors, the cooing of a group of males at their lek seems to float like bubbles over the heather, but interspersed with strange snarls like there is a cat among the pigeons.

Crane

The resonance of this trumpeting call reverberates around their fenland home, a pair often calling in duet, one prompting the other into instance reply, and often accompanied by a matching dance!

Eider

If you are partial to a bit of Kenneth Williams campery, try this, in which the males call out a suggestive ‘ooooohhh’ as if they’ve just seen something ever so naughty.

Manx Shearwater

Take an overnight stay on one of its few breeding islands, such as Skomer, Pembrokeshire, to be wowed as thousands of birds career through the darkness around you wheezing like asthmatic chickens. Amazing.

Willow Warbler

Spring isn’t spring until you’ve heard this sweetest cascade, which brings to my mind a fairy ballerina pirouetting down a staircase, all light and grace. And it’s easy to tell from Chiffchaff!

Starling

This is the Rory Bremner of the bird world, so do pause when you see one in full flow to take in his ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ song, for he will weave in wonderful mimicry, be it a crowing cockerel, a car alarm or even the sound of kids going to school.

Wood Lark

Its scientific name translates as the ‘lulu lark’, with every ‘lullulululu’ verse see-sawing perfectly down the scale, and each to a new and exquisite rhythm.

Nightingale

No list would be complete without this maestro. For sheer audacity and creativity and control, this song has it all. And when he sings his verse that starts ‘tew tew tew tew...’ and grows and grows to its explosive ending, well, it is a show-stopper.

Dipper

This white-water-rafter of tumbling rapids has another surprise up its sleeve: its song. Both males and females indulge, sitting inconspicuously along the water’s edge, singing an introspective melody that has both sweet and squelchy notes that sound like a record playing backwards.

Tree Pipit

Totally under-rated, this is a bird whose song may just be a series of trills, but expressed with pure joie de vivre. When he then launches into song flight, he extends his theme even further, often finishing with ‘weeeee weeeee weeee’ as if he is having the best fun ever.