I wish someone had told me in my early birding days how important it is to learn the songs and calls of the birds, so I'm telling you now. At this time of year, when birds are nesting and setting up territories, the amount of bird song in the air can be overwhelming. It can be very helpful, and I could almost go as far as saying essential, to be able to identify a bird by its song or call.
I am still, at least for now, blessed with minimal hearing loss, but it's the auditory memory that plagues me. For years I was forced to relearn the songs of common birds each spring. I've been told that is a very common learning disorder. It has taken me years of work to overcome that, and I marvel at some of my birding colleagues, such as Jim Royer, who, on our big sit bird count can add 25 or so birds to the list before the sun comes up.
The vast majority of the birds you hear singing are males, and they sing for several reasons; to proclaim their territory, to ward off rivals, and to attract females. A strong singing voice can denote health and an ample food supply, qualities that the females are searching for in a mate.
California Thrasher
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This year I had dueling California Thrashers along my street, singing from adjacent telephone poles, which I assumed were the "corner markers" of their respective territories. A tape recording of a singing bird can greatly agitate another male, sometimes to the point of attacking the recording device. You may force a bird off the nest, and otherwise disrupt nesting patterns if you use recordings to coax a bird into view, so please do so sparingly, especially with rare or threatened species.
House Wren
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The range of song types runs from the simple "wichity, wichity, wichity" of the Common Yellowthroat for example, to the vocal gymnastics of the wrens, who sing many notes per second, and sometimes they seem to be singing more than one note at a time. Some of the English "translations" of bird song can help us learn them, such as the "quick, three beers" of the Olive-sided Flycatcher, or the "Jose Maria" of the Greater Pewee.
Some birds are excellent mimics. I've heard the mockingbird in my neighborhood imitate California Quail, Greater Yellowlegs, Scrub Jays, and even tree frogs. Thrashers can imitate squeaky gates, car alarms, and coyotes—the repertoire of the Brown Thrasher is said to contain up to 3000 songs, but the king of the mimics may be the Superb Lyre Bird seen in this popular clip from David Attenborough.
Most birds, in addition to their elaborate songs, employ call notes, which are usually very simple and often are just single notes. These can be given in flight during night migration, as alarm or contact calls, or as calls by young birds when begging food. These too can be diagnostic to species, though I readily admit I have great difficulty distinguishing subtle differences in single chips given by warblers in the tops of pine trees.
Song Sparrow
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Some birds also communicate non-vocally, such as the drumming of a woodpecker, or the "booming" of a grouse, but both of these are used for the same purpose as song, attracting mates, and establishing territories.
Except for the mimics that are learning songs throughout their life, most song is learned in the nest. The large group of birds called songbirds must learn their song from the adults. They have a well developed vocal organ called the syrinx which allows for the complex song styles we hear. Some birds though, particularly the flycatchers, inherit their song. In one experiment, two different species of flycatchers were separated from their parents, and both were played the songs of the other, yet they ended up singing in their "native tongue."
It is very interesting that bird songs can vary across the continent, just like humans have regional dialects and accents. The several sub-species of our wintering White-crowned Sparrows can often be distinguished by song. I have (even in my limited ability) noticed the difference in the song of the Song Sparrow on the east and west coasts.
Take it from me, it's never too late to start learning the songs and calls of our local birds. It's well worth the effort and pretty impressive to pull up to your birding spot and be able to start identifying birds before the binoculars even leave the case.
