Wildlife UK Forum - Discuss the UK countryside and wildlife

Does anyone have an recommendations for CD's that have different bird calls on them to learn from?

I like the idea of playing a CD in the car when I'm out and about to help learn some more calls and cries. Like people always see you often hear an animal well before you see it, so it would help to know what the sounds were! I am woefully lacking in that area and I'm sure it limits what I can see to a certain degree, so I want to put the time in to learn.

I know there are lots of websites with short clips on but I would like to be able to play them in my own time and not at the computer.

I know there is such a thing for bird calls in the United States, because I have it! I've also seen them advertised here in the US magazines. Sounds like something to research for me .

Kingfisher

There is a 4 CD set called "Bird Songs of Britain & Europe" by J Roche, cost around £49. Try putting the title into Google to see where you can get a copy.

There is a company called Wildsounds http://www.wildsounds.co.uk who do all sorts of bird related disks.

The main problem to just listening to recordings is that they don't stick. What I have done over the years is to go round my local patch and learn all the bird calls there, then gradually get to know the calls of birds in other areas by taking recordings with me on a mini disc player and while actually listening and possibly watching the bird, confirm it by playing the recording through headphones. Some birds - Blackcap and Garden Warbler, are good examples - are so similar in calls that you really need to listen carefully to differentiate, and I've not been able to do that by listening to recordings at home. What I have done in the past is to record a bird while out in the field, then compare when I get home. I still get confused with some birds - I'm not very good with waders, but that's because I don't see them often enough.

Each year I find that I have just managed to master my local migrant warblers, when they all disappear and I have to re-learn them when they arrive again in the spring. Such fun!