Listening to Birdsong

Materials You Need: Birdsong audio is optional.

What You Can Do Together:

First, step outside and listen to the birds – the best time of day is around sunrise or sunset. See whether you can identify the sounds of more than one species.

Next, imitate the sounds of the birds you can hear. Encourage younger children to practice these sounds, or see whether they can repeat them back to you.

Then, see whether you can identify which species of birds are making the sounds. Listen out for simple calls, like the ‘coo-coo' 'too-coo’ or ‘oh-oo-oor’ of a pigeon. You may want to listen to examples of birdsong audio to help you identify different calls and songs.

Finally, by recording or repeating the sounds heard, see if you can put together your own ‘dawn chorus’ of birdsong. It can be repetitive, like chanting the sounds, or without rhythm – that’s the beauty of birdsong!

What Your Child is Learning: Researchers have found parallels between the way young birds learn to sing and how babies learn to speak! Young birds master singing in stages. They start with a ‘subsong’ phase – the equivalent of babbling – then move on to fixing the melody, until they get it correct, similarly to the way human babies learn to speak.