WarbleWarble / Guides
Guides to birding by ear
Plain answers to the questions people type into a search box at 5 am with a window open. Every fact is sourced; every page ends with a bird you can actually hear.
What bird is that?
The sounds people describe when they search: car alarms, squeaky wheels, laughter at night.
- Birds that say their own nameChickadee, phoebe, killdeer, whip-poor-will, bobwhite, pewee. The birds that introduce themselves, and why English named them that way.
- Which bird sounds like a car alarm?Nine times out of ten it is a Northern Mockingbird. Here is how to be sure, and who else gets blamed.
- Which bird sounds like a laser, a video game or a phone?The pew is a cowbird, the squeak from the sky is a hummingbird's tail, and the ringtone is a mockingbird. How to tell.
- Which bird sounds like a squeaky wheel, a rusty gate or a squeaky toy?The squeaky wheel is a Black-and-white Warbler. The rusty gate is a grackle. Here is how to sort the rest of the squeaks.
- Which bird sounds like it is laughing?In the woods it is a Pileated Woodpecker, a flicker or a Barred Owl. At the beach it is a gull. On a lake it is a loon.
- Owl sounds: who is hooting in your yard?Deep hoots, a whinny, a bouncing ball or a scream: how to name the five owls Americans actually hear at night.
- What bird is singing? How to identify a bird by its songPitch, rhythm, repetition, tone, then the clock and the map. A method for naming a bird by ear, plus the ten songs to learn first.
- What bird is singing at night?Mockingbird, whip-poor-will, nighthawk or owl? The birds that sing after midnight in each part of the country, and how to tell them apart.
Learning bird songs
Mnemonics, the dawn chorus, song versus call, and a plan for the first month.
- Bird song mnemonics: the phrases birders use to remember songsDrink your tea, teakettle, who cooks for you: nineteen classic phrases, why they stick, and how to invent your own.
- Bird song vs. call: what is the difference?Songs are long, learned and about territory and mates. Calls are short and mostly built in. Hear both in four common birds.
- Birding by ear for beginners: how to hear birds you cannot seeMost birds are heard before they are seen. Five things to listen for, how to find the singer, and how to remember it.
- Why do birds sing in the morning? The dawn chorus, and what time it startsStill air, poor light for feeding and a night survived: why the loudest singing of the day happens before sunrise, and how to hear it.
- How to learn bird songs: a beginner's plan for the first monthFive loud yard birds, then the sparrows and finches, then a dawn chorus outing, then the unknowns. One month, one bird at a time.
- Why did the birds stop singing? What happens in late summerNesting is over, hormones have dropped, and the birds are molting in the bushes. What you still hear, and when song returns.
Backyard and family
The birds at the feeder, birding with kids, and the state birds.
- Bird games for kids: screen time that ends up outsideA sound scavenger hunt, a breakfast contest, mnemonic charades, plus the apps and the board game worth a child's attention.
- Birding with kids: a first walk that actually worksPick a park with a pond and a treeline, go in the morning, follow three rules, and quit while it is still fun. Ten birds is a great day.
- How to attract songbirds to your yard (and hear them)Seven changes, in order of payoff, with the birds each one tends to bring and the songs you will start hearing from the kitchen.
- The 20 most common backyard birds in the US and what they sound likeDove, robin, junco, cardinal, chickadee, House Finch: the birds most yards share, and the sound that gives each one away.
- The state birds of all 50 states, with their songsEvery state bird and the year it was adopted, which states share one, the two that are chickens, and which ones you can hear at home.
Apps and how they work
What sound identification apps can and cannot do, compared fairly.
- The best bird song identifier apps, compared honestlyMerlin, BirdNET, Audubon and Warble side by side: price, how each identifies a bird, offline use, and who each one is for.
- Bird collecting games: from Wingspan to your own backyardWingspan proved that people will happily collect birds on cards. Here is the family of games it belongs to, and the version you play with real birds.
- Does bird sound identification work offline?Some apps identify on the phone and work with no signal; others need a server. Which is which, and how to get ready for the trail.
- How accurate are bird sound identifier apps?What the published tests of Merlin and BirdNET found, what fools these apps, and how to get a better answer from any of them.
- How do bird song identification apps work?Sound becomes a picture, a trained model recognizes the shape, and the app reports the species it is fairly sure about. The whole trick, in plain words.
Free to play, one catch a day. iPhone, US birds.