Backyard Birding by Ear: Fall Edition

The birdsong peak of spring and summer has passed. But birds don’t go silent in fall! With the hubbub of the nesting season choral competition now faded away, it’s a great time to focus on the distinctive calls and non-song vocalizations of our common backyard birds. When you start to recognize birds by ear, you’ll be quickly alerted to the arrival of an old friend, perk your ears up when an unfamiliar visitor enters the yard, and generally notice twice as many birds as you did in your eyesight-only days. In short: nothing will help you to observe more birds more than learning their songs and calls, and there’s no better place to start recognizing their vocalizations than in your own yard.

In this in-store presentation, we’ll be playing and discussing how to recognize about 20 common backyard birds by the sounds they make in fall. In addition to the nitty-gritty, call-by-call material, we’ll also discuss the purpose of different bird vocalizations and the tips, tricks, and techniques that will make it easier both to remember these birds and to learn others in the future.

This free presentation at Wild Birds Unlimited of Novato will begin at 10 AM on Sunday, October 20 and last about 45 minutes, with time for questions afterwards – bird sound identification challenges are welcome! If you would like to attend, please reserve your space by choosing your number of attendees and clicking “Confirm RSVP” above. 

Header image: Oak titmouse by S. Hunt