Experienced birders
will be able to identify hundreds of birds by their call alone. This skill they
have acquired by spending hours in the field studying birds and their calls.
With the advent of compacts discs (see here)
and Personal Digital Assistants, getting to
know bird calls have become a lot easier. Now you can sit in the comfort of
your home, play the calls over your computer or Hi-Fi and try to identify them!
But I must say, it is still much more fun learning the calls out there in the bush!
The fact is that birds
have unique calls and knowing these calls is an extremely valuable aid in distinguishing
between different kinds of birds.
In some instances the only criteria that will enable you to choose
between two species of birds. For example, although Nightjars can also be identified by other
features, it is not always easy to see those features at night. However most
nightjars have unique calls and it will be much easier to identify them if you
know their calls.
Also note the
behaviour of the bird when it is calling. Is it clapping its wings or maybe
doing a display flight high in the air? Noting this will for instance help you
to identify between Cloud, Wing-snapping, Desert and Zitting Cisticolas. If you
look in your field guide you will note that they
all look alike - but they have different calls and display flight patterns -
making it a lot easier to identify them.
We have a number of
species in South Africa that can imitate the calls of other birds to perfection
for example Fork-tailed Drongos and a number of robin-chats as for instance Cape
Robin-chat and White-throated Robin-chat. So if you hear a bird calling but
cannot see the bird, listen very carefully and take other factors such as
habitat and distribution into consideration before deciding what bird is calling.
The calls of many birds are reflected in their names. The name Laughing Dove refers to this
dove's call (Simon du Plessis).
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