Have you ever tried to learn bird calls? I mean I’m sure we have all tried to make them. But have you ever tried to learn the different bird calls? Like being able to ID birds based solely on the sounds you hear.
For one of my courses in school we had 2 weeks to try and learn to ID over 150 birds by sound. The most important one we had to learn how to ID and make well enough to fool birds was in fact the Pearl Spotted Owlet call ( The bird in the picture ). The reason we had to be able to do this was because it could start something called a ‘Bird Party’. This is great for bird enthusiasts. Not so much for the birds themselves as we make the sound to freak out the little birds into thinking a hunter is nearby, and they swarm over to run off the predator.
Random bird facts aside, if you have ever tried to learn birds just by sound... I feel you. I really do. If you have not then let me tell you this. You know how you wake up in the morning and hear all these beautiful tweets and peeps? How the calls are a wonderful mix of chaos that make no sense but you love to hear? Now I want you to replace that nice sound with the sound of talking. Of the bird repeating its own name over and over and over and over again.
You wake up in the morning to: “I am the red eye dove!” “Red eye dove!” “Red eye dove!” “Hooooope poooo!” “Hooooope poooo!” Hoooo........ Hooope pooo!” “Turtle dove!!” “Turtle... Turtle Dove!!”
Now just imagine that you have learned over 150 different calls. That beautiful thing you could have sat down and listened to for hours is now an incessant repetition of names. It doesn’t stop. It just keeps going with no end in sight. The only way to make it go away is to either forget the bird calls or move to a new country where these birds don’t exist.
A bit extreme yeah, but hey you spend your day hearing the same thing on repeat with no end. You will go crazy. Ever wonder why your Nature Guides seem to be a little bit off. Well this is one of the many reasons. Welcome to the mind of someone who learns bird calls. Welcome to a new form of hell.
