Learn About Bird Song and Bird Calls

Bird song and bird calls

As humans we have learned to recognize a few common bird songs, such as the Mourning Doves soft mournful “coah, cooo, cooo, coo”, or the low cooing of the Rock Pigeons. But you will learn that especially birds from the same species, living together in flocks will have a vocal communication that is very sophisticated. There are special songs and calls that are only used for establishing territories, and there are other calls that are specially used for scaring away other bird rivals, as well as to attract mates.

You will find that bird song is extremely different from each other; some will only have a few notes while other will consist of rich and varied repertoires. But remember one thing; they all have one common meaning: STAY AWAY!!! (between to rivals) or COME HERE!!! (to attract a mate). Most males will do most of the singing which will increase by whole lot during breeding season, when birds are setting up their territories.

When one or more birds have chosen your bird feeding garden to be part of their territory, you will find that it is easier to understand the function of bird song or bird calls. Most land birds will use their song to establish where the boundaries of their territories are, and eagerly defend it if an unwelcome stranger from its own species tries to sing with in it.

You might notice that if a male Mockingbird has claimed its territory around your house, he will sing loudly from your rooftop or a high tree top close by to make sure that any other male mockingbirds are not claiming any parts of his territory. But song is not only important to claim territories; it is also used to attract a lovely mate.

Female song birds are generally very smart when it comes to picking a mate, and she will chose a mate based on his quality of song. This is done by the female which will recognize that the larger of a repertoire a male has, will determine that he is an older bird with more experience in raising a family. He will usually also has a large territory with plenty of rich food sources to ensure the welfare of her and their young ones.

Many birds to not only use their song to attract a mate, some will also display a beautiful, colorful plumage such as the male peacock’s long train to entice a female peacock to accept his offer. Once some birds have found a suitable mate they will completely stop singing, while others will keep it up to build an even stronger bond amongst the pair.

Most birds will inherit some of their vocals from their parents but also from neighboring pair’s song which can influence a particular nestling’s song. It is also very interesting how dialects can be distinguished between same bird species that are from further away or more remote populations. Once a young song bird start picking up on its parents and other close by singing birds, it will memorize some parts but also compose its own distinctive song, which might be the reason for the verity of dialects that occurs.

Now, bird song is not the same as bird calls which are used for another function of communication between birds. Bird calls usually consist of some simple sounds that the birds will use throughout the year, and to direct and coordinate the behavior of other birds nearby. There might be a group or small flock of chickadees making their way trough a hedge searching for insects and other small goodies and while doing so one of the birds can call the group together for any unknown reason or maybe there is an oncoming treat that has been noticed.

Another group of birds like the sparrows has a special winter call that helps keep the winter flock stay close to one another during cold long winter nights. Each flock though has a very distinct call to avoid any unfortunate mixing with other neighboring flocks. Each year every flock will change their flock calls to stay unique to a specific group of birds. Us humans cannot distinguish between one flock call to another, but make sure that the chickadees will not misread one single call.

The alarm call is a very important one as well, especially for small birds that are constantly considered as some ones meal. For example if a cat is slowly sneaking up to a bird feeding table, it will easily become discouraged as many of the birds will perform a harsh “scolding call”. This special “scolding” call is recognized by all kinds of birds which will quickly fly to safety, and will often rally together to form some form of an attack to chase the unwanted predator away.

The bobolink has a special way of performing his warbling song while in a “song-flight”. After take-off he will spiral steeply upwards while singing loudly, and then descend rather slowly by gliding down in larger not as fast spirals.

The Red-bellied Woodpecker has a song that is not done vocally but instead it is a repeated striking of a tree trunk or branch with its bill. He will announce the presence of spring by using its “drums” sound in a series of short bursts, with each lasting less than a second.

Crows and ravens might look alike but have very different call sounds, as the ravens call has a much more varied vocabulary of hoarse cracks and cackles than that of the crow’s distinctive “caw” call.

The mallards will use their quit quacks to keep their broods together, a sound or quack that the young ones has learned to recognize even before they hatched. The young ducklings will answer with a high-pitched cheeping to tell mom and dad where there exact location is.