Going for a song
EVERY birder indulges in ‘earbirding’: locating and identifying birds by sound. It is a challenge to enter a woodland on an early May morning and then try to identify all of the birdsong you can hear. Many birders will listen, hear a bird, identify it, and then stop listening. OK, if it’s the sound of a Common Cuckoo you will have heard everything on offer, but many birds have extremely complex songs which bear listening to for longer just because of their sheer beauty. Here are a few examples:
Sedge Warbler
Female Sedge Warblers are known to choose the mate with the most complex song and older males can have more than 80 syllable types in their repertoire. Songs may include single syllables or ones repeated up to six times, and many of their phrases mimic other species. Listen and see how many you can hear and whether you recognise other songs incorporated.
Eurasian Skylark
One of the longest and most complex songs among songbirds. The beautiful song, given in flight, can last up to two-and-a-half minutes and may contain more than 340 syllables. An individual may have a repertoire of up to 700 syllables. The challenge is to see how often you can hear a Eurasian Skylark repeat itself during its song.
Common Nightingale
One study found that a male Common Nightingale can use its repertoire of more than 1,000 different syllables to make 250 individual phrases. No wonder it is one of our favourite songbirds.
Blackbird
Chosen by RSPB members as the favourite bird singer in 2021, it has up to 108 syllables in its repertoire and will use phrases from other birds, as well as copying artificial sounds like phones and car alarms. If you have more than one Blackbird singing near you, see if they have any identical song phrases.
European Robin
A robin’s sweet song usually contains up to six phrases, all different, and it has 100-250 phrases in its songbook to choose from. This means that nearly every song given will be different from the previous one. A male’s songs are more varied than a female’s, although each song given is of similar complexity.
This year the first day of May is International Dawn Chorus Day so get out and listen to a fantastic dawn chorus near you!