Birds have already started singing as spring nears and soon their melodies will fill the air. But which are the finest vocalists? Charlie Elder gives his top ten.
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Birds have proven an inspiration for musicians, and when it comes to our love of classical music one species sits proudly at the top of the tree – the skylark. Every year Classic FM asks its listeners to vote for their favourite pieces of music, and the resulting Hall of Fame over the last 25 years has seen a select ensemble of popular compositions jostling for the top spot.
Regularly flying high is The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams, which has taken the coveted number one position the most over the last decade – although this year the masterpiece been knocked down to the second branch by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto.
Vaughan Williams’ romantic piece, inspired by a poem about the skylark, soars much like the species in song flight, and soon the bird’s rich and complex refrains will fill the air above our moors and grasslands as spring stirs avian fauna into action.
Already on sunny days our songbirds are tuning up for the breeding season ahead, the males becoming more visible and vocal as they stake out territories and try to impress potential mates.
So, keeping with the theme of charts, I have weighed up my favourite bird songs and assembled a top ten. They are mainly familiar species which everyone can enjoy, though many have sadly suffered steep population declines. And do let me know your favourite songsters by emailing charles.elder@reachplc.com
In typical fashion here is the countdown in reverse order…
2 Nightingale This declining species is mainly concentrated in the south east of England, and if you are lucky enough to hear one you are in for a treat. Plain warm brown in colour, the nightingale tends to keep out of sight in dense cover. But there is no hiding its song, which can be delivered by night and day. It is an incredibly powerful and varied mix of phrases, some mellow, some squeezed into thin trills or hammered out with mechanical urgency, including a telltale ‘chook, chook, chook, chook’. A virtuoso like no other.
10 Willow warbler This plain little yellowishbrown migrant arrives in Britain from the south and ushers in spring with its song, a sweet and simple verse of delicate descending notes. It is almost identical looking to the chiffchaff, but song is the best way to tell the species apart, with the chiffchaff persistently repeating its name: ‘chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff.’ The willow warbler’s short, liquid refrain sounds a bit like a downward musical scale. Once you tune in you can’t miss it, and the first of the year is always a delight to hear.
8 Linnet A finch of scruffy and scrubby habitats, the linnet was once kept as a cage bird on account of its warbling song and pretty looks. The wheezing, twanging tangle of notes has something wild and free about it. It is not an easy song to identify, but the pleasant twittering helps draw attention to chatty flocks of these attractive finches – the males sporting cinnamon backs and pink chests. They tend to be wary and a close-up view is something to savour. 9 Yellowhammer The song of this canary-yellow bird is a simple, rattling run of notes which ends in an extended wheeze, depicted by the well-known mnemonic ‘little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheeeese’. This ray of sunshine’s ditty lifts the heart, especially given it is a species in decline and on the national Red List of birds of conservation concern. It is the sound of farmland hedgerows, scruffy grasslands and heaths, conjuring up a sense of nostalgia for summers past. They even have regional dialects – their songs differing slightly from one area to another.
7 Robin The robin is unusual in that it sings throughout the year. In the winter its tunes are more wistful, and both females and males will sing as they defend precious territories. By spring it is the male that comes to the fore and the song is richer and more melodious. Each sweet and varied phrase is separated by a pause – the gaps enabling them to listen out for neighbouring rivals. Good eyesight means they can be up and singing before sunrise and even after dark by the light of street lamps.
5 Curlew This isn’t a bird you will hear during the dawn chorus in your back garden! But its desolate song is one of the most evocative in the bird world: a trembling crescendo of escalating notes that come to a rapid boil in a bubbling trill. This large mottled brown wading bird, with a distinctive down-curved bill, nests on upland moorland and rough pasture, mainly in northern Britain, but can be seen in autumn and winter all around our coast. A species well worth hearing as well as seeing.
4 Skylark The skylark is a plain, brown bird with a short crest, but a master of song. Its complex, unbroken stream of rapid warbles, delivered in hovering song flight high over open grassland territories, is the perfect accompaniment to a walk on a summer’s day. It has seduced poets and musicians down the centuries and was caught in vast numbers for the Victorian cage bird trade. A male skylark generally sustains his song flight for between a couple of minutes to quarter of an hour.
1 Song thrush Taking my top spot, the song thrush’s exquisite refrains, combining scratchy phrases with pure notes and incorporating some mimicry, are sung loud and clear, and repeated for good measure. That is one of the keys to identifying the song thrush: its short and unpredictable phrases – ranging from a couple of simple whistles to complex rapid warbles – are reiterated for emphasis, with pauses for effect, leaving you in no doubt you are witnessing a performance. Creativeness to marvel at and savour. Enjoy the free concerts.
3 Blackbird The languid, rich and melodious song of the blackbird is a wonder to listen to, with a hint of melancholy in the tender notes. The males signpost their territory with song and each verse is distinguished from the next by a brief pause during which he can listen for neighbouring singing males. The song may sound effortless, but it is deceptively complex. The blackbird is a skilful composer, embellishing his repertoire throughout the few years of his life with fresh variations. This is a common bird with an uncommon talent.
6 Blackcap This warbler’s song is a florid outburst of rich, fluty notes, a bit like a speeded up blackbird, often ending with a flourish. It is quite a plain looking bird with, as the name suggests, a black cap – though the females have a brown cap. Its complicated melodies have earned it the nickname ‘northern nightingale’ in northerly areas of Britain where the nightingale is no longer found. Blackcaps come here to breed in spring and summer, but increasing numbers now visit from central Europe in winter.