Wonderful season: Open your ears and see
Learning bird songs will improve your skills, knowledge of the woods
Springtime is filled with wonder and the chance for discovery.
The act of spring-cleaning brought me to such a moment this week as I uncovered a relic of many former homes and office spaces under a pile of books in the bottom of a closet. It made me pause and wonder, “What the heck’s in here?”
Inside this boxed collection of memories I found a boxed set of compact discs. Remember those?
When did I get these, and did I really pay $30 for the three-disc set of Peterson Field Guides’ “Birding by Ear: Eastern/Central” collection? And did I pay another $30 for the second three-disc set of “More Birding by Ear: Eastern/Central?”
That’s what the cover price suggested.
How could I not remember spending $60 on this? How could I not remember the hand-size booklet inside with its tiny-print content listing of each bird on each CD, illustrated with itty-bitty black-and-white line drawings?
Most importantly, who was Jacqueline, why was her phone number written on the cover of a booklet in my possession that was printed three years after I was married and how did she develop such nice handwriting?
Of course I immediately wondered, “where is the external CD drive for my laptop and when was the last time I saw that thing?”
I lowered my bifocals looked over the tops, brought the booklet to within inches of my face and read the succinct Editor’s Note by Roger Tory Peterson among the first pages of the booklet.
“Birding by Ear is a unique and important new tool for birders,” he noted. “Now they can easily master one of the most useful and difficult field skills—the ability to recognize birds by their songs and calls.”
I wonder how many people in the 1990s went afield with binoculars hanging from their necks, compact headphones on their heads, a Sony “Sports Discman” Walkman player clipped on their belt and this CD set in their backpack?
In case you are wondering where all this is going (something you should have wondered at least 4 paragraphs ago) it is to point out that easily mastering what is one of the most useful and difficult field skills is much, much easier now than it was 30 years ago.
As springtime approaches and nesting and mating begins, this is a fantastic time to start tuning into birdsong.
So, how do you start learning?
My own experience came with what should have been an obvious realization that I had already been doing this all my life. It “clicked” when I heard something I hadn’t noticed before, the clear “Oh sweet, Canada, Canada, Canada” whistles of a white-throated sparrow.
All the time I’d spent in the woods growing up gave me a little bit of an edge on the more citified kids in ornithology classes at Iowa State University. But one day after a class where we discussed bird song and identification I heard high clear whistling and I wondered how is was possible I don’t know what that was.
Once I learned the sound, I immediately started recognizing it all around me.
By the way that’s most of what colleges is about, kids, realizing you’re not a know-it-all after all.
Learning that one sparrow’s call was like tuning in an AM radio dial in my brain. Suddenly when I went into the woods things got clearer and clearer as I continually fiddled with that dial to listen beyond the static of the familiar to learn new voices and gain just a little more insight into my environment.
In 1983 it was more difficult to learn bird songs. I could pull on the expertise of some great birders at Iowa State University, describe songs to them or go afield with them. There were a few cassette tapes and records on the market. Field guides offered a few written clues for these acoustic experiences, like “Oh Canada Canada… ” for the white-throated sparrow or “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” for a black-capped chickadee.
Field guides also included visual reproductions of bird song with photographs of sonograms, which just looked like dots and dashes on a chart. Sonograms are infinitely easier to understand when you can watch them move while you listen.
Just for fun, as I wrote this, I Googled “song of the white-throated sparrow” on my iPhone and instantly pulled up several short videos that not only offered the sound but close-up video of the bird while singing. On my iPhone app, Merlin, I pulled up the sparrow ID and there, with it, were photos, range, recorded sounds, everything.
Other apps, like Sibley’s Song Sleuth, can digitally identify more than 200 North American birds for you—if you’re within solid earshot and can record the bird’s song. That’s the closest thing I can imagine to going afield with an expert.
“Birding by Ear is a unique and important new tool for birders,” he noted. “Now they can easily master one of the most useful and difficult field skills—the ability to recognize birds by their songs and calls.”
“Birding by Ear is a unique and important new tool for birders. Now they can easily master one of the most useful and difficult field skills—the ability to recognize birds by their songs and calls.”
— Roger Tory Peterson “Birding By Ear” 1989
First, though, it’s a matter of turning on that switch.
We all recognize bird sounds. We all know the sound of a duck quacking, a certain percentage of us just happen to recognize that classic quack in the wilds belongs to a hen mallard and no other duck.
In any Oklahoma suburban setting people know the honks of greater Canada geese (which differ from flocks of lesser Canada geese, white-fronted geese, or snow geese). We all hear the morning songs of northern cardinals, American robins and Carolina wrens and we know the unending evening conversations of the northern mockingbirds. The difference is whether we write it off as part of the suburban static or tune in to the dialogue.
In coming weeks, appreciate what a gift we have now in phone apps like Merlin and Song Sleuth, plus myriad free online guides that can help us tune in and start seeing and stop having to wonder what it is we hear in the woods.
The eastern bluebirds are singing mating songs from the treetops in the mornings now. The distinctive echoing whistles of the tufted titmouse before sunrise will tell turkey hunters scouting new areas that the toms soon will wake. Warblers will bring new music to brushy areas and let us know the migration is well underway, and soon anglers will again hear purple martins chattering near the lakeshores and ponds.
A smidgen of wonder about bird song can open up a new vision of the woods. Give it a try and the more you listen the less you’ll wonder and the more you’ll see—even with your eyes closed.
