Spring Songs

As I write this, in my backyard in Western Oregon it is still March and it is raining steadily. The early spring weather of last week has gone, and it's cold. If I look closely, though, I can see that the ends of the branches on the apple tree are swelling with leaf and blossom buds. If I listen I can hear something I haven't heard since last summer: the birds are starting to sing again.

Why do birds sing? Birds use song to convey lots of messages, but the main purpose of a bird's song is to claim breeding territory and attract a mate. Those pretty tunes we hear are actually stern warnings to other birds of the same species. It is almost always the male birds who sing. To other males, he is saying "this is my bush, and you'd better stay away. To females, he is saying "I'm the best bird around, come and see, and maybe we can build a nest here together." Each species has a recognizable song, with identifiable pitches and tempos. Some are simple, one or two notes, others are very complex and will go on for 15 or 20 seconds, then repeat.

Try listening to birds in your backyard, if you have lots of birds in your neighborhood. If you don't, visit a nearby park where there are lots of trees and bushes. The birds will be there. Have your children pick out two or three recognizable songs that are different from each other. Try to identify the singer by using a bird guide. Your local Audubon Society may have bird watching trips specifically designed to help learn bird songs. Those trips are often scheduled in the springtime when birds are singing the most. Even very young children will be able to hear the difference between, for example, a crow and a chickadee, and in time they will be able to identify several species by ear alone. For children who are vision-impaired, learning to identify birds by ear is particularly rewarding.

You might want to check your public library to see if there are field recordings of bird songs which might help your children identify the less common species. Houghton Mifflin publishes an audio series which includes "Walton and Lawson's Backyard Bird Song," which is a simple introduction to common birds, as well as "Birding by Ear," a more advanced course. They are in cassette format. There are even sets of videotapes and CD-Rom guides out now which can help teach bird song both by ear and by sight. To help your child more easily recognize individual bird songs, you might use simple memory cues as a way to identify the song: the black-capped chickadee, which is common across the country, sings "chicka-dee- dee-dee"; the male red-winged blackbird sings "pumpkin-EAT-er." It is best if you come up with your own way to describe the song, you'll have a better chance of remembering it. For example, when I hear the "hic - three beers" call of a flycatcher, I think about how drinking three beers would make my stomach feel, and that reminds me that the bird that sings the "hic - three beers" song is the Olive-Sided Flycatcher.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic