Birds vocalizations are usually divided into two types: songs and calls.

This discussion will focus on calls with the objective of learning what to listen for in calls.

Compare this call with the flight call of the White-throated Sparrow which is very similar but longer (88 vs 162msec.). Fox Sparrow also has a flight call similar to White-throated Sparrow. Recorded at Dot and Brooks Evert Trail in New Jersey October 28,1994.

The two Song sparrow calls illustrate differences in pitch as well as the fact that a single species can have several to many calls. Recorded at Lake Patagonia, Arizona June 1992.

The Winter Wren call illustrates the use of rhythm as tool in identifying calls as the notes often are doubled or tripled despite having a quality close to the Song Sparrow. Recorded at the Evert Trail, New Jersey in October.

The sonagram is of the metallic tik call. The Northern Cardinal’s most common call illustrates a quality termed metallic-similar to the sound produced by striking two metal bars together. Northern Waterthrush, Hooded,and Prothonotary Warbler’s contact calls have this same quality. Listen carefully for the last call in this sequence which is not metallic and represents the softer rising twik call. “Hard” is a term used in describing vocalizations, particularly calls, and means loud amplitude. Why don’t they just say loud? Caution is needed in using amplitudes since everyone’s hearing is different and it also depends on the distance to the calling bird. The Cardinal’s call is often described as a sharp (which means short, crisp, and staccato) metallic chip. A Stokes commercial recording.

Here again with the White-throated Sparrow we have a call with a metallic quality that is loud and short (49 mSec). Contrast this with the flight call of the White-throated Sparrow (next slide). Recoded at Lake Onawa, Maine.

Notice the higher pitch and how long the White-throated Sparrow’s flight note is relative to its chink call. The waviness in the sonagram indicates a trill or lisping effect. The Song Sparrow’s flight call is similarly pitched but noticeably shorter. The White-throated Sparrow has yet another call which you can hear on the Stokes tapes. The chink call was recorded at Lake Onawa, Maine on July 9, 2002 and the flight call at the Evert Trail in New Jersey on March 5, 1995. I usually here the flight call, given by perched birds, more often than the contact call in winter in this area.

This is another example of a White-throated Sparrow’s flight call taped in June 2000 in Algonquin Provincial Park. Notice the call is about the same pitch and length as the preceeding flight call taped in New Jersey in March and has the same trilling effect BUT the sonagrams are far from superimposable. I included this to show the variation within a species call. Don’t expect them all to be exactly equal!!

The Dark-eyed Junco provides an example of a call with a smacking quality. Yellow Warbler also has a smacking contact call. Recorded in Colorado 1991.

This is the most common call of the American Goldfinch. Recorded at the Evert Trail in New Jersey in April 1996.

This call of the Pine Siskin illustrates the buzzy quality of a call. Also notice that the call is very long-nearly a second. A commercial Stokes recording.