Early Birdsong

By Charlotte Owen

WildCall Officer

Birdsong is making a comeback.  Just as we’ve got used to the relative quiet of the long winter months, the first tentative notes of nearly-spring spark an instant remembrance of what’s been missing all this time. 

It hasn’t been completely absent, thanks to the winter performances of robin and wren, but these seasonal soloists are now joined by the beginnings of a chorus.  The less tuneful members compensate with sheer volume and enthusiasm, refusing to fade into the background - and none more so than the Great Tit. The first “tea-cher, tea-cher” call is a welcome surprise but its repetitive insistence sounds just like a squeaky bicycle pump, and once you’ve tuned in it’s hard to tune out again.  It may seem like the great tit has a limited repertoire but don’t let its simplicity fool you: “tea-cher” is just one of 70 different calls, all designed to advertise and defend a breeding territory.  By hopping about between several different perches and blasting forth a different song at each one, males can trick their rivals into thinking they are facing an army.

Blackbirds are starting to pipe up too.  Their beautiful melodies will soon be in full swing providing the soundtrack to the summer, but in the meantime it’s their cousins the thrushes who really come into their own.  The Mistle Thrush has the same mellow tone as the blackbird but sings with less gusto in a minor, melancholy key.  He will sing a single phrase and then pause, as if checking what comes next, before continuing his hesitant recital.  While the phrases may build in complexity, it’s as if the song never really gets going.  Despite this apparent stage fright, the Mistle Thrush has no qualms about singing from the treetops during the stormiest of weather, pouring forth his song in fierce defiance of the wind and rain.  In contrast, the song thrush is bold and bright and takes joy in repetition, singing a single phrase three or four times over before moving onto the next.  

Listen out for these exuberant songsters as spring edges ever closer, and the dawn chorus builds to its full melodic glory.