Join Scala Radio and the RSPB for the Big Garden Birdwatch 2021
29th - 31st January 2021 is one of the biggest birdwatching weekends of the year
Last updated 29th Jan 2021
Novice birdwatchers or seasoned pros are invited to join in the Big Garden Birdwatch 2021 on 29th January 2021.
Lockdown restrictions may well be making physical meet-ups difficult, but you can make plans with friends and family to take part in the world’s largest wildlife survey, all from the comfort of your own homes from the 29th - 31st January.
We spoke to Adrian Thomas from the RSPB who provided us with tips on what birdsong to listen out for throughout the Big Garden Birdwatch weekend. Simon Mayo will also be playing clips of the featured birdsong as part of the Joybringer spot on his weekday show.
How to spot a robin's birdsong
The nation's favourite bird. We enjoy its tameness, its perkiness, and its delight in accompanying us when we're digging or weeding.
But its song is also a delight, and what's more can be heard throughout the winter when most birds are silent. That's because one of the functions of birdsong is to proclaim a bird's territory, and robins are solitary souls and need to maintain a feeding territory all year.
It also means that females sing, so that means double the song. And what a creative song it is. Each short verse lasts only a couple of seconds. Then there is a pause, before singing the next. Each verse is different, and each robin sings a different set of verses than his or her neighbour.
So how can you tell it is a robin if it is always coming up with new compositions?
Listen for the tone, for the ever-varying abstract tunes are full of a wateriness - gurgles and trickles, each verse typically with high and low sections, fast and slow - still moments gushing over. And listen for it, too, by streetlight - many people think they must be listening to a nightingale, for the robin is happy to sing with just the hint of dawn on the horizon, and streetlights can give it all the prompt it needs.
How to spot a Great Tit's birdsong
It may only be January, but already on still and sunny days Great Tits are starting to sing.
It is one of the most vibrant and ringing of garden bird songs, a sound with no inhibition. This is all about repeating patterns, and many males will sing a version of the simple, seesawing, high-low of
tea-cher tea -cher tea -cher
However, each male may have up to six variations on the theme in his repertoire. So, having given us a bout of 'teacher teacher', he might shift to a 1-2-3.
tea -cher-cher tea -cher-cher
Or perhaps he has something more syncopated up his sleeve:
TEEE chu-chu 'TEEE chu-chu
Or, he might flip to low-high instead of high-low:
tea-CHER tea-CHER
but all with the same ringing confidence.
How to spot a Blackbird's birdsong
It is usually a little later into spring that the Blackbird decides to join the chorus. Perhaps he realises he is the star of the garden show, the arrival of the diva with the silkiest of tones and best melodies. Each verse is short, just like the robin, only two or three seconds. But instead of the watering gurgling, this is rich, mellow flutiness, four or five notes that tend to then end with a terminal twiddle of something much more squeaky and complex.
Each subsequent verse is different, or appears to be. But listen long enough and you might be able to pick out that he is actually on a loop of his greatest hits. He may have thirty or more verses he uses, and you actually have the chance to teach him something new. Whistle back one of your favourite little phrases. Do it often enough, and he may well adopt it as his own.
The Blackbird is found in a greater percentage of gardens than any other bird in the Big Garden Birdwatch, so we should be extremely thankful that something so tuneful is so widespread.
How to spot a Wood Pigeon's birdsong
Every orchestra needs its base instruments to underpin the melodies above, and in the garden these birds provide the tubas to contrast with the woodwind soloists.
The Wood Pigeon’s main song is a run of warm if moaning notes to the rhythm of ‘I DON’T want to go. I DON’T want to go’, while the Collard Dove is a simple cu-COOO-coo’ to the rhythm of ‘u-ni-ted u-ni-ted’. The Wood Pigeon has an even simpler song, only heard at close quarters, an even deeper ‘merrrrr-mawwww’, which is the noise the male makes when showing his mate the place he thinks would make a fine nestsite. The Wood Pigeon is one of the garden winners of recent times, its numbers booming, but there are initial signs that the Collared Dove is beginning to struggle.
That’s what the Big Garden Birdwatch can show us – the more people who take part, the better the annual snapshot of how well our garden birds are faring.
How to spot a House Sparrow's birdsong
It might not be the most musical of birds, but we can't not include the species that consistently still tops the Big Garden Birdwatch each year as the most abundant species in UK gardens. That's even in spite of its numbers having slumped by two thirds since the 1970s.
There is something endearingly enthusiastic about its song and calls, even if it hasn't grasped the idea of melody. The song of the male is just a metronomic series of chilps, cheeps and chowps, at a pedestrian pace, delivered from somewhere near his chosen nesthole, often under the eaves or in a sparrow nestbox.
However, these are very sociable birds, and they will often gather in what is called a Sparrow Chapel for a good old natter, in which the chillps, cheeps and chowps are accompanied by fast rattling and softer chup sounds, in an excited hubbub.