The Voice of Birds

I love the half hour before sunrise. With the windows open, the only sounds come from nature.  Claws scratching bark as squirrels climb nearby trees. Deer hooves crunching dried leaves on the ground. The songs of the various birds flying through and perched around the neighborhood. I listen carefully trying to match the birds with the songs.

Identifying birds by their song is a talent I haven't taken the time to learn. Being a visual person, my instinct is to look first for characteristics: size, color, beak shape and so on. The drawback is that birds don't really care if I can identify them. Unwilling to sit still long enough for me to pull out my field guide and flip through the pages, too many sighting opportunities have been lost. Having the ability to recognize a song would give me the advantage of knowing the species before actually seeing it.  That would give me time to pull out my field guide, notebook or perhaps, my camera.

There are many ways to learn bird songs. You can join a local Audubon group and go on birding trips. You can locate recordings and descriptions of bird songs in field guides. One source I use is Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, a hefty but comprehensive book on birds that includes a bonus CD of bird songs.

This past winter, I stumbled upon the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, All About Birds (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/Page.aspx?pid=1189) .  This site is amazing. You can find videos and audios of birds, natural history information, citizen scientist projects, on line classes and so on. I can't say enough about this website. So in the fall when the trees lose their leaves, the temperatures drop and the birds migrate south I will settle in front of the computer instead of the television. Perhaps next spring when the birds return, I will be able to identify them by their voice.