sound

Welcome to the Macaulay Library

The crisp song of a cardinal . . . the goofy call of a Willow Ptarmigan . . . You can hear these recordings and 150,000 others when you log on to the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The bird sounds you hear on BirdNote come from this library. Linda Macaulay, after whom the... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  sound

American Robins Are Exceptional Singers

As singers go, American Robins are exceptional. They’re often the first birds to sing in the morning, and the last you’ll hear in the evening. While their average song strings fewer than a dozen short phrases together and lasts only a few seconds, robins sometimes sing for minutes without a pause... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  sound

Drumming with Woodpeckers

Like a jazz player beating out a drum roll, a woodpecker uses its bill to rap out a brisk series of notes. Early spring resounds with the percussive hammering of woodpeckers. Their rhythmic drumming says to other woodpeckers, "This is my territory!" We also hear them knocking on wood when they... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  breeding display, sound

Voices and Vocabularies - The Basics

Birds’ voices invite us to step into nature and learn more about the singers. Hearing what’s distinctive in one bird’s voice – compared to another – helps us identify our avian neighbors without seeing them. Amazing! -- The differences between the songs of three marsh-dwellers: the brassy... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  birdwatching by ear, sound

A Tree Alive with Song - European Starlings

What an amazing noise! Whistles and trills, squeaks, rattles, and gurgles that suggest an orchestra of birds tuning up in the urban forest. You look around – not a bird in sight. The sounds waver in intensity, but with no clear pattern. Perplexing, but strangely wonderful! Suddenly, a large... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  sound

Voices and Vocabularies - Three Hidden Sparrows

Some birds have a remarkable knack for staying out of sight. Often we don’t know they’re nearby, until they sing. But with a little practice, we can learn to identify birds without seeing them. Listen to the songs of the Song Sparrow, the Chipping Sparrow, and the White-throated Sparrow --... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  birdwatching by ear, sound

Voices and Vocabularies - Eastern Bluebirds

A male Eastern Bluebird stands on a wooden nestbox attached to a fence post. The bluebird’s song – and his alert presence - assert his claim to this territory. In the mid-20th Century, the numbers of bluebirds in the Northeast declined to the lowest level ever, due largely to nesting... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  birdwatching by ear, sound

Singing Like a Bird and Feeling Good

Every now and then, don’t you just want to belt it out? Imagine singing like a Black-headed Grosbeak! Or what about a Carolina Wren? Picture warbling like a House Finch. All this just too rambunctious for you? The call of the American Bittern more your style? Or this Yellow-headed Blackbird?... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  humor, sound

Visiting a Sage-Grouse Lek

It was March, and some time before dawn, I was driving a van full of birders down a gravel backroad of Southeastern Oregon. The dirt track slid under us disconcertingly, like a thin layer of wet snow. When rain falls heavily on ground only half prepared for absorption, a sickly alluvium forms. We... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  birdwatching, breeding display, plumage, sound

Bird Songs Reflect the Environment

The explosive notes of a Marsh Wren carry well through thick vegetation. A Common Yellowthroat's choppy, repetitive song rattles right through a stand of cattails. An Olive-sided Flycatcher sings from atop a tall tree, its song carrying at least half a mile through the open air. Different sounds... read more »

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