https://birdsound.org/blog/ Practical guides for learning birds by ear, with real field recordings and the science behind what you hear. en Wed, 07 Oct 2026 09:03:24 +0000 contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Avifauna build_blog.py https://birdsound.org/blog/nocturnal-flight-calls-guide.html https://birdsound.org/blog/nocturnal-flight-calls-guide.html Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Identification contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Most songbird migration happens in the dark, and the birds call as they go. A modest microphone and free software are all it takes to hear the autumn overhead. https://birdsound.org/blog/batumi-raptor-migration-2026.html https://birdsound.org/blog/batumi-raptor-migration-2026.html Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Regional Guides contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Georgia's Black Sea coast funnels more than a million birds of prey through a corridor a few kilometres wide every autumn. The 2026 count is running hot — and strangely short of kites. https://birdsound.org/blog/migration-timing-climate-flexibility.html https://birdsound.org/blog/migration-timing-climate-flexibility.html Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Science contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) GPS tracking of 500 migrations shows geese can compress their journeys by weeks to keep up with an earlier spring. New modelling suggests the trick works for another two decades. https://birdsound.org/blog/socotra-cormorant-gulf-drone-census.html https://birdsound.org/blog/socotra-cormorant-gulf-drone-census.html Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Science contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Ground counts found 17,108 Socotra Cormorant nests on one Bahraini island. A drone and a counting algorithm found 9% fewer — in 20 minutes instead of six hours. https://birdsound.org/blog/lake-tuz-flamingo-creche-turkiye.html https://birdsound.org/blog/lake-tuz-flamingo-creche-turkiye.html Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Regional Guides contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) 12,800 flamingo chicks hatched at Lake Tuz this year, the best season in five — and the colony is raising them in a crèche guarded by a few hundred adults. https://birdsound.org/blog/saudi-houbara-rewilding-satellite-tags.html https://birdsound.org/blog/saudi-houbara-rewilding-satellite-tags.html Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Conservation contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Saudi Arabia released 20 Asian houbara into a Tabuk reserve in January, the first there in 35 years. Ten carry satellite tags — and the hard part has just begun. https://birdsound.org/blog/gannet-colonies-bird-flu-recovery.html https://birdsound.org/blog/gannet-colonies-bird-flu-recovery.html Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Conservation contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Adult gannet deaths rose fourfold in 2022. Bass Rock lost 26% of its colony, Grassholm 38% — and new modelling says neither recovers before 2041 at the earliest. https://birdsound.org/blog/europe-farmland-birds-decline.html https://birdsound.org/blog/europe-farmland-birds-decline.html Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Science contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) A decade of pan-European survey data shows 77% of farmland bird species retreating — and a new study asking whether hunting is to blame finds the answer is no. https://birdsound.org/blog/solar-farms-and-birds-europe.html https://birdsound.org/blog/solar-farms-and-birds-europe.html Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Regional Guides contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Spain now gets over a fifth of its electricity from solar. Research from Andalusia to East Anglia shows the difference between a solar park that costs birds and one that shelters them. https://birdsound.org/blog/african-penguin-year-2026.html https://birdsound.org/blog/african-penguin-year-2026.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Conservation contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Twenty-kilometre no-fishing zones, one colony up 92 pairs, and then a sardine die-off weeks before moult. What South Africa's African Penguin numbers actually add up to. https://birdsound.org/blog/serengeti-vulture-nesting-decline.html https://birdsound.org/blog/serengeti-vulture-nesting-decline.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Science contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) A nine-year aerial survey in Tanzania found 56% fewer vulture nests, a 29.4% breeding success rate and a fifth of the nesting trees gone. Three numbers, one story. https://birdsound.org/blog/big-year-of-african-sounds.html https://birdsound.org/blog/big-year-of-african-sounds.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Regional Guides contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Fewer than a third of African bird species have enough recordings to train identification tools. A 2026 Cornell Lab and BirdLife South Africa campaign wants 1,800 of them on tape. https://birdsound.org/blog/black-faced-spoonbill-census-2026.html https://birdsound.org/blog/black-faced-spoonbill-census-2026.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Conservation contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) The Black-faced Spoonbill fell below 300 birds in 1989. This January's synchronized count across the East Asian–Australasian Flyway found 7,746 — with a warning hidden in the numbers. https://birdsound.org/blog/tokara-leaf-warbler-japan.html https://birdsound.org/blog/tokara-leaf-warbler-japan.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Science contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) A leaf warbler on a small Japanese island chain turned out to be two species. The birds look identical — what gave them away was their DNA and, crucially for birders, the way they sing. https://birdsound.org/blog/japanese-tits-animal-language.html https://birdsound.org/blog/japanese-tits-animal-language.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Behavior contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Japanese Tits announce snakes and hawks with different calls — and combine two of them into phrases with a combined meaning. Their researcher wants us to stop assuming language is human. https://birdsound.org/blog/city-birds-song-noise-europe.html https://birdsound.org/blog/city-birds-song-noise-europe.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Science contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) A 65-species study across Europe used xeno-canto recordings to test the famous idea that urban birds sing at a higher pitch. The answer is more interesting than the theory, and German research explains why. https://birdsound.org/blog/lights-out-fall-migration.html https://birdsound.org/blog/lights-out-fall-migration.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Conservation contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Radar counted 103 million birds over Wisconsin in a single September night. The science of “lights out” campaigns is settled enough to act on — and the peak of autumn migration is now. https://birdsound.org/blog/british-garden-birds-sounds-2026.html https://birdsound.org/blog/british-garden-birds-sounds-2026.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Regional Guides contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Britain's biggest bird counts and its new feeding advice landed in the same week in April. Together they describe a garden that is changing — and tell you which six voices to learn first. https://birdsound.org/blog/china-teaching-machines-to-hear-birds.html https://birdsound.org/blog/china-teaching-machines-to-hear-birds.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Science contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Sound recorders from a Chongqing wetland to the Jiangsu coast are turning bird calls into data: 510,000 recordings, 1,500 identifiable species, and a new way to monitor wetlands. https://birdsound.org/blog/china-winter-waterbird-count.html https://birdsound.org/blog/china-winter-waterbird-count.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Conservation contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) A synchronized survey across 876 sites counted 6.32 million wintering waterbirds — 159% more than a decade earlier — and logged a run of rare records, from Red-breasted Geese in the northwest to a Black Bittern in Hainan. https://birdsound.org/blog/beijing-common-bird-sounds.html https://birdsound.org/blog/beijing-common-bird-sounds.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Regional Guides contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) An exhibition at China's national science museum profiles 63 birds of Beijing. Here is how to recognise the city's commonest ones by sound, from the magpie in the hutong to the night heron on the canal. https://birdsound.org/blog/first-bird-recordings-wax-cylinders-whistlers.html https://birdsound.org/blog/first-bird-recordings-wax-cylinders-whistlers.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Behavior contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) The first bird song ever recorded was cut on a wax cylinder in 1889 — a captive shama in a Frankfurt parlour. The first wild songs waited until 1900, and for years afterwards some of the best-selling bird records were made by human whistlers. A short history, with recordings to compare. https://birdsound.org/blog/how-to-identify-bird-songs.html https://birdsound.org/blog/how-to-identify-bird-songs.html Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Identification contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) A practical beginner guide to identifying bird songs using repetition, pitch, rhythm, habitat and real field recordings. https://birdsound.org/blog/bird-song-vs-call.html https://birdsound.org/blog/bird-song-vs-call.html Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Behavior contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) Learn the practical difference between bird songs and calls, with examples of songs and calls from common North American birds. https://birdsound.org/blog/eastern-north-america-backyard-bird-songs.html https://birdsound.org/blog/eastern-north-america-backyard-bird-songs.html Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Regional Guides contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) A beginner-friendly guide to common backyard bird songs and calls in eastern North America, with recordings and listening tips. https://birdsound.org/blog/cuckoo-or-dove-bird-song-mistakes.html https://birdsound.org/blog/cuckoo-or-dove-bird-song-mistakes.html Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Identification contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) A practical comparison of repeated, two-note or cooing bird sounds, with real recordings and listening clues. https://birdsound.org/blog/why-birds-sing-dawn-chorus.html https://birdsound.org/blog/why-birds-sing-dawn-chorus.html Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Behavior contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) A plain-language guide to the dawn chorus, why birds sing early, and what to listen for in the first light. https://birdsound.org/blog/common-garden-bird-songs-britain-northwestern-europe.html https://birdsound.org/blog/common-garden-bird-songs-britain-northwestern-europe.html Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Regional Guides contact@birdsound.org (Bird Nerd) A beginner guide to familiar garden bird sounds in Britain and northwestern Europe, with recordings and identification tips.