Bird sound facts for kids
Bird sounds are all the noises birds make to talk to each other. They use different sounds like songs and calls to communicate important messages. Birds talk a lot, mostly to other birds.
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Why Birds Sing
Bird songs are special messages for other birds of the same kind. Birds sing to find a partner, to mate, and to tell other birds that a certain area is their home. The way a bird sings can change depending on what message it wants to send. Usually, only songbirds, which are called Passeriformes, sing. Singing is one of their special ways of living.
Scientists think bird songs might have developed because of something called sexual selection. This means that good songs help birds find a mate. Experiments show that a bird's song quality can tell you how strong and healthy it is. For example, if a bird is sick, its song might not be as good. This helps other birds know if it's a healthy mate. A bird's ability to sing many different songs can also show how healthy it is. Males that can sing well and protect their territory with song often show they are strong.
How Birds Learn Songs
Most of the time, birds are born knowing the general tune of their species' song. It's like a basic blueprint. But they can make it even better by listening to other birds of their kind nearby. For some birds, their song is completely natural and they don't need to learn it. For a few others, they have to learn their whole song by listening to older birds.
Identifying Birds by Song
Many bird songs are so unique that you can tell what kind of bird it is just by hearing it. People have tried to describe bird calls using words or even drawings to help others identify them.
Bird Calls and Other Sounds
Most birds like to be around other birds. They use calls, which sound different from their songs, to talk to each other.
- Alarm calls are usually short and loud. They are hard to figure out where they are coming from. These calls warn other birds about predators nearby.
- Mobbing calls bring other birds together to scare away animals that are bothering them.
- Birds in a flock often call to each other to stay together while flying.
Some birds are amazing at copying sounds they hear. Parrots and drongos are very famous for this. Common drongos in the Kalahari Desert even use other birds' alarm calls to trick them. They scare the other birds away from food so they can eat it themselves! They get about 23% of their food this way.
Birds also make sounds without using their voices.
- Woodpeckers drum on hollow trees to mark their territory.
- Snipes make a sound called "winnowing" or "drumming" with their tail feathers when they fly.
- Storks can barely make sounds with their voices, so they clatter their beaks together instead.
Recording Bird Sounds
The first person to record bird songs was a man named Ludwig Karl Koch (1881–1974). He made the very first known recording in 1889. Later, he became a sound recorder and broadcaster for the BBC.
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