For the Birds: Birds gotta sing

Oregon Junco nestlings about two days old
They left by seven days
Photo by K. Wennstrom

Birds gotta sing--babies gotta learn…

By Christine Southwick

When I walk in my yard I hear lots of baby birds babbling. It is not the peeping sound that they make in the nest. Fledglings start out with almost a crying, insistent, “Feed Me”. Then they go into a babbling, learning bird-talk kind of sound. Babies learn by listening and mimicking the local male(s). Studies have shown that Song Sparrow youngsters (and probably other species) who heard two competing males learned faster, and had a local dialect. Like human babies, sometimes they get their song wrong.

Spotted Towhee male with young fledgling he just fed.
Photo by Christine Southwick

There are two basic types of sounds birds make: call notes, and songs.

Call notes are usually short: chips, clicks, piks, etc., and include their alarm calls. The chips or single notes are used to maintain contact with other flock/family members — the constant chatter of a foraging flock of bushtits is an excellent example. Alarm calls are not used to defend territory.  They are used to alert the birds within their territory of impending danger: hawks, cats, corvids, humans…

Our local chickadees only have one song, but they have a variety of calls that are used to convey info: the familiar “chickadee dee dee” can be both a contact call, or if delivered rapidly and repeatedly, an alarm call. The “fee bee” one hears in the spring has to do with courting and nesting.  And they have a quiet call just before they reach the nest.

Older Spotted Towhee fledgling feeding self
Photo by Christine Southwick

Songs are longer, with repeatable notes and melodies.  These are used to defend a territory or to attract a mate. Usually only males sing, although with some North American species, like the Northern Cardinals, both males and females sing.

Amazingly, the Cedar Waxwing has no discernible song — only high call notes. At the far end of the spectrum, Gray Catbirds have approximately 400 songs.

Female Spotted Towhee calling
Photo by Christine Southwick

There are clear notes, whistles, warbles, trills, and combinations. Additionally there are differences in pitch that make some birds easier to ID than others. For me, the Olive-sided Flycatcher has a distinctive pitch that allows me to identify it just from a call note, even before its “Quick, three beers”. And volume also is important. Did you know that the Pacific Wren (AKA Winter Wren) has ten times more volume than a crowing rooster?

Recently it has been found that baby birds and baby humans share the same gene type for learning language.  Maybe that is why birds and humans are known as “singing species.” (From the mouths of babes and birds: clues to language)

Christine Southwick is a Board member of the Puget Sound Bird Observatory and is their Winter Urban Color-banding Project Manager. She has completed the 40-hour class to become a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat Steward.

For previous For the Birds columns, click the link under the Features section on the main webpage.