GOT International

Birding by Ear        

GOT members listen intently to final advice from the experts before setting off  into the forest on an early morning birdwatching expedition in the Miranda nature reserve in the town of L'Ametlla. 

It was birding with a difference at GOT’s year-end Sunday morning with nature at  the Miranda Park in the highland town of L’Ametlla on the southern slopes of the Cingles del Berti mountain range.

The birds   --  17 species all told  -- were there all right; their calls could be heard clearly enough. But the thick undergrowth, dense woodland and the  incessant  chatter of scores of adults and children filing up a narrow trail near the edge of a deep gorge,  made it virtually impossible to get even a glimpse of a single one.

Nonetheless, the two-hour climb wasn’t all in vain. It helped drive home the message that birding has just as much to do with the ear as with the eye. For bird lovers in search of forest and woodland birds, listening skills are indispensable. In fact, many bird species are more readily detected and identified by ear than by eye.

Bird calls and songs are truly amazing phenomena. Birdsong is one of the wonders of the natural world, and for bird-lovers there’s nothing more enchanting than listening to a dawn chorus while watching the sunrise --  as most urban dwellers whose homes play host to song birds will testify.

Bird calls vs bird songs

Birds however do not sing to entertain us. Singing is simply a means of communicating with their avian kith and kin. Ornithologists also distinguish between a bird call and a bird song.

Not all birds sing and not all the sounds birds make are called songs. In fact only Passeriformes, or perching birds, are true songbirds, which mean that nearly half the global avian population do not sing. These birds use short and unmusical vocalizations, what birders describe as bird calls,   to communicate within their species.

How do Birds make Noises?

According to ornithologists, birds do not have a larynx like humans do. Instead they have an organ called a syrinx, a sort of double instrument that sits deep in a bird's chest at the point where the trachea or windpipe divides into two bronchi or branches. One half of the syrinx rests in each bronchi and each of these halves is capable of making sound, giving the bird the ability to sing two different notes at the same time, and even sing a duet with itself. Thrushes  (Monticola solitarius), for example, are capable of singing a rising note with one side and a falling note with the other. None, however, can compare with the amazing Australian Lyre bird for the variety of sounds it is able to produce.

 Heard but not seen

At the Miranda Park bird trip, few apart from our guides, Albert Petit and  Anton Montsant , could identify with certainty all the birds whose calls told us they were there among the Holm oak, poplar, elm, chestnut and ash trees and in the undergrowth of shrub, small plants and ferns

The most frequent calls came from these birds (clicking on name takes you to sound files) :

Robin ( Erithacus rubecula); Petirrojo Europeo; Pit-roig

Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes); Chochín Común; Cargolet

Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs);  Pinzón Vulgar; Pinsà comú

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis); Jilguero; Cadernera 

Great Tit (Parus major);Carbonero Común ; Mallerenga carbonera

Siskin (Carduelis spinus ); Lúgano;  Lluer

Common Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita); Mosquitero Común; Mosquiter comú

Spotless Starling (Sturnus unicolor );Estornino Negro; Estornell negre

Blackbird (Turdus merula ); Mirlo Común; Merla, and

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla);  Curruca Capirotada; Tallarol de casquet.

More difficult to make out were the:

Dunnock (Prunella modularis); Acentor Común; Pardal de bardissa, and the

Short-toed Treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla); Agateador Común; Raspinell comú

And making their presence felt too  were the:

Green woodpecker (Picus viridis) , Pito real; Picot verd

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major); Pico Picapinos; Picot garser gros

Common Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus); Paloma Torcaz ; Tudó

Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto); Tórtola Turca; Tórtora turca, and the

Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius); Arrendajo;  Gaig

 (List compiled by GOT veteran Ferran Pascual who caught all the sounds!)

A rare insight... 

It wasn’t a totally bird-free morning, however, for the 100 or so people who had turned up. The day began with a ringing session conducted by ornithologists Roger Sanmartí and Anna Dalmau.

Mist nets put up at dawn had trapped a total of  seven robins, one blackcap and a chaffinch, which were then weighed, measured, checked for injuries and then ringed before being set free again. For the onlookers, it was an insight into the birding world rarely seen by non-ornithologists, and formed an integral part of GOT’s programme to bring the birding experience to the general public.

The highlight of the morning came with the flight to freedom of a young female sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) that was badly injured when it crashed into the glass pane of a highrise building about a month ago. The bird of prey was sent to Torreferrussa Wild Fauna Rehabilitation Centre where it was treated and then  handed over to GOT to be released into the wild.

Countdown to freedom - Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) Gavilán Común, Esparver vulgar, Sperber,

        Autour des palombes. Below: Video by Virginia Cavet shows Roger Sanmartí setting the bird  free.

A bit of habitat-building was next on the agenda  -- six Black Poplar (Populus Nigra)  saplings were ceremoniously planted near the lower reaches of the Torrent del Verder, the mountain stream running down the gorge.  The tree planting was part of a fluvial rejuvenation project of the Town Hall, and the Mayor herself, Ms Angels Cabello, was present to talk about its importance to the biodiversity of natural environment

Top left: Anton Montsant replanting a 6-year-old poplar. Top Right: Jordi Puig, the
Town Hall's environment expert, steadies a 2-year-old poplar sapling. In the picture
below Jordi Puig shows what a fully grown 40-year-old poplar tree looks like. 

The project involved the planting of no fewer than 55 trees over a period of several weeks in the vicinity of the park. The Black poplar,  a favourite with ground feeding birds and mammals, is ideal as ground stabilizers at river banks.

Rounding off the day’s activities was the  DIY nest box building workshop, hallmark of GOT’s Mornings with Nature,during which participants knocked into shape their own nest boxes under the tutelage of GOT veteran Albert Blazquez. All the necessary material –‘prefab’ boards, nails, hinges and hammers – were, as always, provided free by GOT. All that the participants had to do was put knock their boxes into shape and take it home.

GOT veteran Albert Blazquez (left) helping parents and their children build nest boxes from scratch.

Words & pictures by Abul Fazil