Maybe I need to take a course. They have them. You can even find them online. I’m talking about identifying birds by their songs.
I can do a few. Last spring, while we were all spending more time close to home, I managed to see about twenty or so different types of birds in my back yard. Now, I’d like to be able to learn to know them by their songs.
It sounds easy, but maybe not as easy as you might think. Even identifying them by sight can be tricky some times. Like with sparrows. There are a lot of different types of sparrows. They are mostly the same general size, but have slightly different markings. The same can go for some of their songs. Slightly different songs. So who was that twittering away?
Some really are easy. Cardinals, with the males being bright red, are pretty easy to pick out by sight. And the call is fairly easy to identify as well. It’s loud and pretty much the same each time.
The blue jay… that’s another story. Sure, they’re easy to tell on sight, but by sound, not so much. They have a lot of different calls and are pretty good at imitating others. While sitting near my feeder I have heard what sounds like a hawk. All the little birds and more than a few squirrels suddenly run for cover. But who shows up? A blue jay. He was just clearing the way so he could have lunch in piece.
Blue jays have a lot of calls. Most are easily identifiable, but sometimes they can fool you.
There are a lot of others that can be picked out fairly easily. Like chickadees and nuthatches. They are fairly common and also fairly talkative, so you get to pick them out without a lot of trouble.
But there are many I’m not sure about. A lot of these belong to smaller birds. The type of birds that can hide fairly easily in the tree tops. You can hear them, but seeing them is not always easy. I really need to learn more about their calls.
It is that time of year. We hear a lot more from them as many of our birds start to return to join those who stuck around for the winter. I hear lots more than I see most days. I’d like to know who I’m hearing.
