***Feedback on this challenge gratefully received as a comment on this post.***

I’m going to start with the assumption that you can already recognise the songs of common garden birds. With those under your belt, adding the calls and alarm calls of frequent garden visitors is a good place to start to build your confidence. If you don’t know the calls of the commonest birds in your patch, then your other call identifications aren’t going to be taken seriously.

In my suburban London garden the ‘frequenters’ include Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Chiffchaff and Blackcap, Blue/Great/Coal/Long-tailed Tits, Blackbird, Song Thrush, (an occasional) Mistle Thrush and, in winter, Redwings.

I’m suggesting three groups for the birds in this challenge, and please excuse me for basing it on the frequent visitors to my own garden. I’m also going to hold back Long-tailed Tits to include in a ‘treetop teaser challenge’. Obviously it makes sense for you to customise the birds you include to be relevant for your own garden.

For Part 1, let’s start with Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Chiffchaff and Blackcap, and work our way through the following steps.

Step 1 – Describe – Listen to each of these recordings and describe the call in each case, thinking in particular about features which would help you distinguish between them. I’d suggest doing this both phonetically – ie. twee-doowee – and, where you can, with words/phrases with a similar intonation to the call – ie. ‘Eat, the cheese’. It’s worth checking your phonetic descriptions against those in a good field guide, for example the Collins Bird Guide.

Robin call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/robin/?type1481 , Robin alarm call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/robin/?type1482 and then Robin flight call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/robin/?type1483

Wren alarm call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/wren/?type1470. Think about the difference between this and the Robin alarm call.

Dunnock call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/dunnock/?type1576 and Dunnock flight call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/dunnock/?type1577. How do the Dunnock calls compare with the Robin flight call?

Chiffchaff call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/chiffchaff/?type1572 and Chiffchaff alarm call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/chiffchaff/?type1573. How does the alarm call compare with the regular Chiffchaff call?

Blackcap call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/blackcap/?type1498 and Blackcap alarm call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/blackcap/?type1499

Step 2 – Mimic – Go back through the recordings and attempt to make the sound in each case thinking about pitch, pattern, sound quality and ‘voice’.

Step 3 – Revise and test. Ask a kind person to test you on the above recordings. I’d suggest doing this in two ways: a) Ask them to shuffle the recordings, for you to name the bird and call type; b) Ask them to say a bird and call type, for you to mimic the sound.