The Music of Birds Migrating in the Night

BirdNote^®

The Music of Birds Migrating in the Night

Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote. 

    [Nocturnal flight call soundscape]

Ornithologist Bill Evans has helped us better understand the sounds that birds make as they migrate at night. Known as nocturnal flight calls, many species can be identified based on their signature sound, like this Green Heron.

    [Green Heron call]

Using special handmade microphones left outside overnight, Evans, his colleagues and many volunteers recorded countless nocturnal flight calls to catalog and identify the sounds. 

But we’re still working to understand these calls. Some are very similar to each other. Others have never been identified — some of the many modern-day mysteries that biologists face.

But for now, take a moment to revel in the beauty of the calls that birds make at night while flying hundreds or even thousands of feet in the air. This clip is from a six-hour recording of squeaks, whistles and peeps from thousands of birds passing over a hayfield in central New York state. You’ll hear a few crickets, too.

    [Flight calls from several birds]

Learn more about nocturnal flight calls and how you can record them for yourself on our website, BirdNote dot org. I’m Michael Stein.

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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.
“Big Migration Night” field recording by Bill Evans (CC-BY)
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2023 BirdNote November 2023
Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# nocturnal-01-2023-11-01    nocturnal-01

Reference:
http://oldbird.org/pubs/fcmb/pages/monitor.htm
https://soundcloud.com/user-830174402/big-migration-night