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

Woodlands are wonderful places to listen to bird calls, but it can be a real tease as you may not manage to catch a glimpse of the target bird at all. Even more reason to really know the calls of birds which like to hide away in the tree canopy.

There are lot of birds which could fit in this category, but I’m going to focus on four birds I see/hear regularly in my local woodland patch which all have high-pitched and potentially confusable calls – the kinglets – Long-tailed Tits (or lollipops, as my dad liked to call them), Treecreepers, and the kinglets – Goldcrests and Firecrests.

The learning steps to take are as before.

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.

Long-tailed Tit calls recorded by Arjun Dutta https://xeno-canto.org/592958. LTTs are usually heard in a flock and often call repeatedly and ‘overlappingly’, but listen carefully and you can hear that most of the calls are 3 clear syllables, with the emphasis on the first one and then slightly falling in pitch.

Treecreeper calls as recorded by Mark Plummer https://xeno-canto.org/984243. The calls are clearly delineated single syllables, often quite piercing, and less ‘buzzy’ than the LTTs.

Goldcrest calls at heard here https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/goldcrest/?type1510 have 3, 4 or even 5 monotone syllables. They sound buzzier to me than LTT calls and sometimes the 1st syllable is quieter than rest. Here are Goldcrest calls recorded by Paul Driver https://xeno-canto.org/884813 but compare this with the LTTs. Goldcrest alarm calls https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/goldcrest/?type1511 sound similar to the Treecreeper calls to me.

Firecrest calls as recorded by Arjun Dutta https://xeno-canto.org/927703 have several syllables, between 4-10, and all of similar weight and with a more bell-like quality than either Goldcrest or LTT. 

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.