Bird songs and their meanings

[gwand]

Why do birds make so many different sounds? A study gets at the underlying factors

Birds make sounds to communicate, whether to find a potential mate, ward off predators, or just sing for pleasure.

phys.org

 

[Uberhoust]

My wife and I do quite a bit of birding though at the amateur level. A couple of years back we encountered an app called "Merlin" from Cornell University, https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/. With the app you can record and id birds using their song, and you can visualize the song using the sonograms it generates. I believe a number of birds sing for the sheer pleasure of it, much like some birds like to play in the wind.

 

[gwand]

My wife and I do quite a bit of birding though at the amateur level. A couple of years back we encountered an app called "Merlin" from Cornell University, https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/. With the app you can record and id birds using their song, and you can visualize the song using the sonograms it generates. I believe a number of birds sing for the sheer pleasure of it, much like some birds like to play in the wind.

I agree. I also have that App. It’s terrific. In my backyard the App identified 33 species by either song or camera shot or both.

 

[fishorama]

I once attended a lecture that featured slowed down wood thrush songs. It was amazing, like multilayer flutes & more! I think it was a territorial song or maybe to entice a female. Also from Cornell bird labs, I think. That was before internet...

They're the 1s who keep bird banding records if I remember right. When I worked in a wild bird hospital, we tried to band many native birds we released, part of my job. Some birds needed to go into a flock & we relied on our own & others bird watcher sightings...or listenings, lol (is that a word?). The guy from the Natural History Museum was a great resource & very good active birder, but he had no sense of distance. 500 yards or 2 miles off a road? Interesting times!

 

[Uberhoust]

Do any of you do the feeder watch or e-bird counts? My wife and I participate in iNaturalist, E-Bird, and Feedwatch.

 

[gwand]

I did for a few seasons during Covid.