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

If you know your wagtails, you may have spotted that the picture is of a rare visitor to the British Isles, a Citrine Wagtail, rather than one of the three commoner ones – Pied, Grey and Yellow – which will be the focus of this challenge.

Wagtails are a good example of birds which you might hear before you see them. While the three commoner wagtails are relatively easy to identify from sight combined with behaviour and habitat, I often hear Pied and Grey Wagtails in urban habitats before I see them because their calls carry so well.

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.

Pied Wagtail call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/white-wagtail/?type1613 and flight call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/white-wagtail/?type745 

Grey Wagtail call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/grey-wagtail/?type746

Listen carefully to hear the difference between Pied and Grey calls.

And while I’d be surprised and chuffed to hear a Yellow Wagtail in an urban habitat, for completeness let’s add in Yellow Wagtail call https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/yellow-wagtail/?type747

Step 2 – Mimic – Attempt to make the sound in each case thinking about pitch, pattern, and sound quality.

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.