I am soooo lousy at IDing birds by song! Frustrating as can be as the woods this time of year are so chock full of the cacophony of our feathered compadres. I have envied those who can simply listen and say "Hooded Warber!" Of course I nod agreeingly while in my head thinking "If you say so." I have the bird song CDs. I have my iPod. I have my headphones. And they do help when I am searching out a particular bird. But somehow it hasn't struck until this year (that's after a bit over 30 years of birding). And so I dare to share my revelation on MOU as well as MnBird although it would have a better home only at the latter.
I have known and now own that I am a visual learner. That is why I am good at seeing a bird and knowing what it is. But I never knew how I would ever "see" a song and relate it to a bird. This year I have continued a thought and birding practice that I started last year. I keep looking at a bird until I can see it sing - hopefully repeatedly - and of course this doesn't work if they aren't timing their singing while I am looking. Somehow, watching a bird sing, the movements of its body during the call, whether it be a particular quivering of the beak, a repeated movement of the tail during the call, the position on the limb, the posture of its head, a certain energy I experience, or whatever other unbeknownst to me sensed uniqueness, I can actually recall the image in my head the next time I hear the call. I can see the bird from last year singing that particular call. I am sure there are those out there who can listen to the CDs repeatedly or (as I tried) going to sleep with them playing in their ears. It didn't work for me. I had to turn it into a visual experience where each element of a song related to a connection with a visual image of the bird singing it. Obviously it takes a lot of birding to have each bird etched into my visual memory - but how is this for results. I heard a call yesterday and got so excited even before I found the bird. I knew somehow that it was a Magnolia Warbler - one of my favorites. When I finally found the beastie slowing festering over each and every aged flower bud on this one huge tree - I realized what I had accomplished. I knew the bird by call (visual call) as I could see in my head the bird actually calling. I then applied that to the other birds that I know by call like Chipping Sparrows, Robins, Orioles, various woodpeckers, etc, and I realized that was also how I learned their call - from repeatedly watching them sing. All you birding-by-ear folks are probably rolling your eyes at this point but you have been blessed with gift you likely take for granted. You can just do it. I have tried for 30+ years am only now putting the pieces together. In fact I have always felt lesser than those who can bird by ear. Sufficiently so that I always have questioned both my sightings and hearings in that I couldn't identify both - like I had to know it all before I would have a legitimate bit of information to share. Now I have a method to overcome my lesser than madness. Another huge step for a man, and a giant leap for auditorily impaired visual ornithology! Thomas Maiello Angel Environmental Management, Inc. Maple Grove, MN