As I write this, I can hear music outside. It’s the music of a mind so different from mine. A brain diverged from my own by at least 300 million years of evolution.
It’s the music of, a woodpigeon!
The sound of a wood pigeon I recorded:
WOO-WOO-WOO-WOO!!!!!
I love the song of woodpigeons. They’re like the bass singers of the bird world, like a flying Paul Robeson. Imagine that, Paul Robeson flying around while singing!
Over the last few months, I’ve really developed a very keen interest in bird song and bird sounds. And frankly, I’m surprised I’m only really getting into this fairly late in life. I first started really listening to and recording bird song when I was 38, (I’m 39 now). In part, it was definitely an extension of the love of bird photography I developed last year (2024). And another big part, was when Sean Roynayne enchanted the world by telling us about the wonderful songs of birds:
I’ve reviewed Sean’s book here:
And as a fellow autist and Corkman, it was really fascinating to see the parallels, and also differences, between his journey with wildlife and my own.
I think Sean is a large part of why I got into audio recording, without his explanations of the joy of recording bird song, it’s entirely possible I’d have just stuck with the bird photography, which also brings me a lot of joy.
But, to return to something I said earlier, I’m still quite surprised I got into the sounds and songs of the bird world so late in life, and the reason for that is that, I’m a musician, and have spent countless hours of my life singing and playing musical instruments and listening to other people’s music.
In terms of the music I listen to, I was always searching for something off the beaten musical path. If it’s got unusual time signatures, I’m there. If it’s got modes and scales that don’t even exist in Western music, you can guarantee I’ll be listening. I was always attracted to music that was “out there”.
And what is bird song, but music that’s so “out there”, that’s it’s made by an entirely different species? The music of minds that diverged from our own so long ago, it’s a span of time that the human mind simply can’t comprehend.
For close to a year, I have spent countless hours wandering through the Glen River Park, searching for birds to photograph and record. And I remember encountering a bird who’s song blew me away. How people describe hearing Hendrix for the first time, yeah, it was a similar feeling. Take a listen yourself:
This recording was from last June, shortly after I got into listening to birds and recording their song. I apologize for the creepy stalker breathing on it, it was Summer and hayfever had declared war on me. But this remarkable little songster you’re listening to is a chaffinch!
Know nothing but the glory of the chaffinch!!!!
All my life, long before I developed an interest in birds and wildlife, I’ve found birdsong to be beautiful. I remember in my early twenties, waking up in the middle of the night, in an absolute rage at how much my life absolutely sucked back then. And then, as the sun started coming up, the birds started singing, and, all the rage just melted away, and I felt a feeling of peace I can barely describe. So even before I developed a hyper intense interest in it, bird song was always a wonderful experience.
But with the chaffinch, it is a beautiful song, but, I’d like to explain how listening (I say listening as opposed to hearing, I assume I’d heard it before) to this song for the first time was such an amazing experience. It was, perhaps the first time where, hearing a bird song spoke to me, as both a musician and a music fan. I can hear a real creativity in this song. It sounds like something that I as a guitarist, wish I had come up with. I like to imagine the chaffinch song as though it was a guitar solo, and I think, the overdrive settings are perfect, that tremolo picking is superb, and those string bends, what I’d give to be able to execute such amazing bends!
The same feeling I get from listening to one of my favourite guitarists, such as David Gilmour and Alex Lifeson, I get from listening to a chaffinch singing. So I spend a lot of time looking for chaffinches. As soon as I hear one, my heart soars. And I have at the time of writing recorded at least 14 chaffinches.
And now, let me introduce you to another one of my favourite “guitarists”.
As ridiculously cute as is possible!
It was only over the last few weeks that the song of the blue tit became one of my favourites. They have such a sweet song, but also it’s got this element that reminds me of, for all the world, nineties alternative rock. That style of music often had a dynamic where the guitar in the verse sounded fairly calm and subdued, but the guitar in the chorus sounded very angry, buzzy and loud. I often hear this in a blue tit’s song. I hear this song as starting off sweet, but then getting a lot more buzzy sounding. Nineties rock music, invented by a fellow with wings!:
What has really gotten my excited about listening to blue tit song, is that the song they do is typically simple enough for me to follow along with easily. What this means, is I can usually keep track of where the blue tit changes up the song to be creative fairly easily. Have a listen to this:
From 53 seconds on, is what I usually hear when a blue tit sings. But before this, is almost the usual blue tit song “backwards”. DEE DEE- DA DA DA DA, that’s the usual one. But the blue tit starts with DA DA DA DA, DEE DEE, not this exactly, but close to it. When I heard this song, I was fascinated and intrigued by it for quite some time afterwards. What was the blue tit’s thought process in changing around the song? Is it any different from when I, or any other musician decides, “That’s the same thing I always do, I need to change things up to keep things interesting”?
We’ve talked about my favourite winged guitarists, but now, let’s talked about my favourite winged drummer. And this mighty percussive sound is produced by such a tiny bird. I’m talking of course, about the wren!
A tail for the ages!
As a drummer, I wish I was better at snare playing. But guess who’s already gotten me beat. This song of the wren sounds to me for all the world like very impressive snare playing. Listen to this!:
My goodness, to be even half as good at drumming as the tiny little wren! Such a joy to hear! What I can’t do with my arms, the wren can do with their vocal cords!
And now, you’re going to be starstruck, because I’m going to introduce you to one of the absolute celebrities of bird song. There’s no point in asking this celebrity for an autograph, because birds never developed the ability to write, and neither do they have any concept of what an autograph is. But nevertheless, I think you’ll love to meet this absolute legend in the world of bird song. Who else could I be talking about, but the robin!
I like to sing, because I’m a robin!
Some of my favourite birds, like blue tits, chaffinches, and song thrushes, can be hard to find sometimes. They’re not super rare by an stretch, but it is entirely possibly to spend hours birding and not encounter a single one. Or you encounter them, and they’re just not doing any singing when you encounter them.
But the robin, my goodness the robin, just loves to sing. I have at least 57 recordings of robin song, it’s probably closer to sixty, there’s some recordings I need to look at, see if they’re salvageable with the level of background noise they have. The most recordings I have of any other bird species is the great tit, at sixteen. This high number isn’t just because of how much I love robin song, though that’s part of it. It’s also because, they’re so easy to record, because robins are always singing! They sing all year round. And while I’ll often encounter other types of birds that are happy to sit on a branch silently, if you encounter a robin, this state of silence probably won’t last, soon enough, they’re going to burst into song!
Their sheer enthusiasm for singing means if you live in Ireland, you will pretty much NEVER experience a day when you don’t get to experience the delight of hearing a bird singing. If it’s a day when all the other birds are quiet, you can be pretty sure the robin won’t be!
Because they sing so much, you will often experience something quite wonderful that you don’t experience as often with other birds. That is, a robin will just land on a branch, right in front of you, and start singing. Now, it’s important to put this in context, the robin probably isn’t singing to YOU. It’s more of a case that they don’t mind whether you’re there or not. But I still find this experience to be magical. The fact that the robin is singing, and doesn’t really mind if I’m in the audience!
And here’s one my favourite recordings that I took of a robin singing. You might be thinking, why the devil is this one of your favourites when it’s got that goddamn ice cream van? Well, I felt that despite this unfortunate intrusion, the robin’s singing was loud enough to compete, and I think this is one of the most beautiful examples of robin song that I’ve ever heard:
Since I’ve talked so much about how I love the fact that the robin sings ALL the time, you might find my next comment a bit strange. Part of what I love about robin song, is that the robin knows when not to sing. On an instrument like a guitar, when you’re playing a solo, it’s not necessarily good to just go dadadadadadadadadadadadadada, it can be overwhelming for the listener. What can often be better, is to just play a few notes, then let those breathe, play another few, then stop for a bit, then play something really fancy, and then stop for a bit to let the listener take that in, and so on and so forth. And my word, does a robin ever understand the importance of taking a rest and letting those phrases breathe. If you listen again, you’ll hear often, quite often, the robin isn’t singing, giving you time to digest the beautiful phrase that was just sung, as opposed to overloading your brain with musical information.
I love the amazing variety in a robin’s song. Everything from sweet flute like passages to percussive almost ape like sounds. And the robin can rapidly transition from a rapid fire blast of notes to a slow passage that makes you feel so euphoric.
Would you believe me if I told you that there is a bird song that is so beautiful, that I feel indescribable joy before it has registered with my brain what it is that I’m hearing? I literally think, “I feel wonderful, but I don’t know why.” And a second or two later it registers with my brain, that I’m hearing a song thrush.
A singer of the trees
This was something I was surprised to hear yesterday, because I was on my way home, in an area where there was usually heavy noise pollution, so I just wasn’t expecting that I’d encounter a song thrush singing. I got out my Tascam and hurriedly switch it on, worried the bird would have stopped singing before I started recording, and I got this:
Don’t know how I got such a clear sound with the cacophony that was happening all around the bird, but the song thrush sang so clear and strong, that I could still hear them singing from my own house when I returned home! A beautiful song will bring me close to tears, or actually to tears, and a song thrush song has a very similar effect on me. The emotional effect their song has on me is very similar to that of the curlew:
One day while walking along the Courtmacsherry Estuary, I came close to bursting into tears, so beautiful was the song of the curlew I was hearing.
So, I thought I’d finish by saying, if you’d be interested in getting into recording bird songs, there’s a good chance it’s feasible to start today. While now I use a Tascam DR-05X, admittedly one of the cheapest recorders you can buy, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to get out there and start without spending any money. I started recording bird song with the microphone in my smartphone. And there’s another reason why your phone could be your best friend when you’re starting out. There’s an app called Merlin that can hear a bird’s song, and then tells you what that bird is:
When I started off listening to and recording bird song, this app was a godsend, because back then I had no idea what birds I was hearing, I didn’t even know the birds that even non birders know how to identify! Now I can hear many birds and recognize them without the aid of the Merlin App, but it was Merlin that got me to that point in the first place. I still use it, though I find in locations that I’m very familiar with I don’t use it as often because I tend to know the birds that live there fairly well.
A word of caution with Merlin though, it’s not 100% accurate. Merlin is an amazing piece of technology, the fact that an app has been invented that can tell you what a bird is 80 to 90% of the time is absolutely incredible. But, it’s important to realize its limitations, and not take what it says to be gospel truth. How I use it, is when the Merlin app identifies a bird, I treat that as a hypothesis that is worth investigating further, not an absolute pronouncement on what the bird is. So use Merlin, but be aware of its limitations!
While your bird recordings will be a source of enjoyment to you, they can also be a source of enjoyment and education to others. So, if you’ve got a few bird recordings, why not consider uploading them to xeno-canto?:
Xeno-canto is a citizen science project, which allows anyone to upload their recordings of birds (and other animals.) It’s a great resource, but at times I’m often surprised at how incomplete its database is. I remember when I first uploaded to xeno-canto, a few bird recordings I took in Courtmacsherry, and after that I thought, I’ll have a listen to the other recordings that have been taken of Courtmacsherry. And when I typed in Courtmacsherry, my jaw dropped. Only my name came up, meaning I was the only one who had ever uploaded bird songs for Courtmacsherry, and before I had done so, a few minutes previously, there were NO bird recordings for Courtmacsherry! To my surprise I found the same with the Glen River Park. Empty. Until I started uploading bird songs for there. So, your bird recordings really can make a positive difference. Why not look up xeno-canto, see what areas have no recordings, and try to get out there and record those birds yourself!
Some days, I am completely overwhelmed with amazement, about the fact that, pretty much whenever we want, we can go outside and listen to musicians from another species. Music is such an incredible, life affirming thing, as our feathered friends have known well for millennia!
Ponderings Of An Autist 
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