DESCRIBING SOUNDS: BREAK IT DOWN

Next, we need to actually describe the sounds we hear. When it comes to how a bird looks, we have quite a sophisticated vocabulary. We can describe size, pattern, colour, action. However, with sound, it can seem like we just don’t have adequate words to really pin it down. Think about trying to describe the voice of someone you know well: you can recognise them in an instant, but try to write down what it is that defined their sound and you would struggle. However, what we can do with any bird sound is listen for certain attributes, one at a time. The seven that I think most useful are: DURATION: how long a song verse or call lasts VOLUME: how relatively loud or quiet a sound is PACE: how fast or slow the notes run PITCH: how high or low a sound is, and whether it changes in the sound or verse PATTERN: how the notes combine to create rhythms and melodies TIMBRE: the ‘colour’ of a note, such as whether it is fluty or harsh. It is also whether we can hear vowel or consonant sounds; when we try to write down a bird sound in human words and letters, it is called phonetic transcription OVERALL EFFECT: whether the combination of all of the above add up to a memorable whole. Let me show you how this works with a very familiar bird like a Robin, whose song is incredibly variable and – for many – quite difficult to learn. In terms of duration, each verse of Robin song is typically short, just 1-3 seconds, while the song’s volume is moderate – not ear-piercing, but then again, not whispered. The pacing is interesting in that it is variable, with long, still notes alternating with rapid little flurries and twiddles. Meanwhile, the pitch is also variable, but noticeably there are often one or two high phrases, followed by low phrases within each verse. However, it is difficult to spot a consistent pattern of repeated notes or clear beats, and each verse is different in its construction And in timbre, well, you’d be hard pressed to transcribe any of the notes into English. Instead, there is a liquid quality to it all. So, overall, I find that it conjures the image of a mountain stream, at times calm as if in a pool, but then spilling over into trickles and gurgles. Even the Robin’s main call continues this theme, its ‘tip tippitip tip-tip .... ’ like the dripping of water droplets onto hard stone. Described step-by-step in this way gives a full picture of what makes a Robin’s song unique, even though it is so variable. However, you don’t have to use all the seven attributes to describe a particular sound. Indeed, with the Robin, all I remember is the mountain stream analogy, and it tells me everything I need. Similarly, the image of a jangling bunch of keys is enough to describe the Corn Bunting’s song, as is the ‘teacher teacher’ phonetic transcription of one of the main verse types of Great Tit song (although each male will have half a dozen or so alternative verses up his sleeve, just to keep you on your toes!). For the Cetti’s Warbler song, it is the full-blast volume that stands out, and if you combine that with the aide-mémoire of ‘Chip. Chip shop. Chippy chip-shop chippy-chip-shop’, you will easily pick it out. In contrast, Dartford Warbler song is all about pacing: it is like an extra-scratchy Whitethroat song, but at double the pace. It is frenetic! This sonogram shows the different pitch of the sounds of four birds. Pitch is measured in Hertz (Hz), which just means the number of times a sound wave vibrates each second. Don’t worry about the science; the key thing is that we can hear sounds between 20Hz and 15,000Hz (15khz), although, as we get older, the top of our range drops to about 10khz hertz.