So far, in the library of essential Bay Area bird sounds I’ve presented you with, we’ve focused on 20 songs: the longer, more complex vocalizations that many birds give in spring. Often these vocalizations are particularly prominent and distinctive, making them a good place to start the journey. Song peaks from March through mid-May, and exists in some substantial form between January and August. During this time, you’ll be able to derive some substantial usefulness from those first two chapters on the Top Ten Backyard Birdsongs and the Top Ten Woodland Birdsongs.
But birds make a lot of other sounds too! These are collectively known as calls, and include everything other than those territorial fitness-demonstrations of springtime. Let’s briefly clear up what these are all about before proceeding to another dose of ten sounds, covering the most essential year-round calls of backyard birds.
Did you come to listen rather than to read? Feel free to jump right to the sounds.
Types of Calls
Broadly speaking, most calls can be identified with one of four categories: begging, territorial aggression, contact calls, and alarms. In many cases there are additional variations within these categories, sometimes too subtle for our hearing. If you’d like to learn more about these call types and how to read their meaning, I recommend the book What the Robin Knows by Jon Young. If you want to learn how to identify many more calls than this shallow scratch of the surface I’m giving you here, I recommend the new Peterson Guide to Bird Sounds of Western North America, which goes further than any other guide in categorizing the different known vocalizations of all of our local birds.
- Adolescent Begging: Young songbirds make high-pitched plaintive sounds during the first weeks of their life as they beg for food from their parents. These sounds go along with a visible performance, with wings flapping, legs crouched, and mouth open:Right now, from late May into August, is the perfect time to listen for this phenomenon, but begging calls are not the most useful for species identification, since these sounds are similar across similar songbirds, heard only during a short period, and are usually accompanied by more distinctive adult vocalizations.
- Territorial Aggression: These calls are similarly concentrated around the nesting season, when birds are much more particular about their territorial boundaries, and are of far less frequency than the next item, so I wouldn’t recommend focusing here to start out either. They are are most often given between birds of the same species and don’t elicit the widespread, all-species reactions of many alarm calls.
- Companion Calls: These are the vital ones. Also known as contact calls or casually as stay-in-touch notes, these are extremely useful for identification of different birds, many of which forage in flocks or pairs and use vocalizations to keep track of each other.
- Alarms: When you want to move beyond just knowing which birds are nearby, to actually understanding what is going on around you, recognizing alarm calls is crucial. They can alert you to a predator or to the bumbling impact of your own appearance on the scene: this awareness is crucial to avoid making the common mistake of thinking that there are simply no birds present in the quiet aftermath of certain alarms. And they are also useful for species identification, since in many cases they are simply louder variations on the contact calls, or at least have strong similarities of tone.
In other words: the place to start with year-round vocalizations are the contact calls and alarms. And that’s what I’m presenting here, in another handy dose of ten. Start with these Top Ten Calls of Backyard Birds, then continue to the Top Ten Calls of Woodland Birds.
The Top Ten Calls of Backyard Birds
- California Scrub-Jay: Most people know the voice of a jay: a loud, harsh squawk of a few different variations. (My favorite of the traditional names for this bird is “blue squawker.”) Sometimes a call is repeated quickly, sometimes slowly, or sometimes it is given individually. Sometimes it is short and abrupt, sometimes it is a little longer and vaguely two-syllabled – jay-icck! It is likely that there are subtleties being expressed here which we are difficult for us to pick up on: warnings for different types of predators or territorial shouts sound more similar to us than to them. Start with recognizing the basic squawk:
- American Crow: I like to start with jays and crows because they are easy. You probably are already at least somewhat aware of several of these calls, which have so far entered the sphere of popular knowledge that they have been given their own distinctive English words: while owls hoot and doves coo, crows caw. Crows, jays, and ravens are related birds collectively known as corvids. All share a similar tone of voice: harsh and unmusical. Generally speaking, as the birds get larger, the voices get deeper. Jays are relatively screechy, while ravens give relatively low-pitched croaks (though it should be remembered that all corvid voices are variable). Crows are in the middle. Both jays and crows are common in residential areas, while ravens are generally less numerous.
Photo by Gregory Smith California Quail: While not found in every yard, quail are another good one to cover early in your birding by ear education for three reasons: the sounds are distinctive and easy to learn, they carry a long way, and they match the loveable roundness of the birds themselves. I once possessed a stuffed dolphin with a squeezable voice box that sounded rather similar and which gave me great pleasure.
The most distinctive call is the three-part assembly call evoked by such phrases as Where are you? Chi-CA-go! and Cuidado! (Careful! Watch out!). The first and last of these are particularly suitable mnemonics because they evoke some of the meaning associated with this call, which is often given to assemble scattered flock members. (The quail song is a shorter and simpler version of this: just one syllable, slightly longer, but of the same tone quality.)
Photo by Becky Matsubara California Towhee: Many birds stay in touch with mates, relatives, or flock members with simple chip notes, or contact calls. That of the towhee is in some ways illustrative of this generic, seemingly very basic type of call. In practice, however, it is usually pretty easy to recognize among the usual selection of backyard species, and is distinguished by its particularly loud and metallic quality. Sometimes it’s likened to the low-battery alert of a dying smoke detector. This is a good call to pay attention to as you begin to practice awareness of what the birds are doing, and not merely which birds are present: usually the resident pair of towhees will give these calls to each other as they stay in touch, increasing the frequency of the notes if there is a sense of tension, agitation, or worry.
I discuss the vocalizations of this species at length in my essay on the brown-bird.
Oak Titmouse – Becky Matsubara - Oak Titmouse: The titmouse voice is raspy, squeaky, and distinctive – endearingly so, as I argue in my titmouse essay, complete with illustrative parallels from 30s Hollywood comedies. Some of their most familiar calls follow a “chick-a-dee” pattern (titmice are relatives of chickadees and share many habits), but these notes are applied in a few different configurations. Here’s a classic chick-a-dee, with two shorter introductory notes followed by a solid, repeated “dee-dee-dee.” Pay particular attention to the raspy tone quality, which is easily recognizable even in the simplest calls.
Photo by Doug Greenberg Chestnut-backed Chickadee: The titmouse voice is raspy and squeaky – the chickadee voice fits in the same frame of reference, but inclines more towards the squeaky end of the spectrum. The pattern can be similar to the titmouse, but the “dee” notes are much more nasal and squeaky, rather than rough and raspy.
Photo by Risa George House Finch: Probably the most common and widespread feeder bird in our area, the house finch gives you plenty of opportunities to practice the recognition of their voice. Their most typical call is a slightly hoarse, middle-pitched, upslurred zree? (upslurs often sound questioning, in the same way that we humans turn phrases into questions with a simple rise in pitch at the end). Often given by perched birds.
Photo by Nancy Frost Lesser Goldfinch: Goldfinches also can give rising zree? calls similar to those of house finches, but usually thinner and higher in pitch. Most helpfully, they will usually mix these calls into their conversations along with their most frequent and distinctive call, a downslurred whistle: teeer. This note is not hoarse or burry, but rather a clear sinking whistle. Clear. Sinking. Whistle. Listen for these, and you’ll become much more aware of the goldfinches lounging in the treetops.
- Downy Woodpecker: Several woodpeckers have similar voices, with variations on loud, abrupt pik! notes. Locally, downy woodpeckers are one of our more common backyard species and are a good example of a basic pik! call (their larger lookalike the hairy woodpecker has a similar call that is higher, louder, and more forceful).
- Nuttall’s Woodpecker: Probably our next most common backyard woodpecker, this species with a “ladder-backed” pattern has a voice with a similar tone to that of the downy woodpecker. Their most typical vocalization is not the single pik! of the downy and other woodpeckers, however, but a distinctive double version of this call: pit-tik! They often give this call in flight, serving as a helpful announcement of their arrival or departure.
Want more bird sounds? Check out the other entries in this series:
Header photo: California quail by Allan Hack
This is such a helpful post! Thank you.
Played the Quail song and one in the yard answered.
Really fun to listen to these and watch the same birds at the bird feeder. Thank you!
I love these birdsong emails. Keep sending because I save and savoy them all!
Thanks everyone, I’m glad you liked them! Be sure to check out the other entries in the series, including a just-posted “Fall Bird Sounds.”
Thank you for sharing I love all birds and their songs.