The ever cheerful bird Bird Song Course No. 11 – Early Birds

If there’s one bird that delights you, it’s the flaxbird, according to bird song expert Dick de Vos. With its cheerful and light song, the happy sound can be heard from the tops of low bushes or low trees.

The sparrow is named after the stuttering, somewhat irregular sound in its song. Variation is great, from fast alternating rattles to distinct shivers and whistles. Elevation and rhythm changes are clearly heard by the bird.

Regarding bird song, confusion may occur with siskin calls or with grosbeaks. However, the grosbeak lives in a different type of habitat. It prefers coniferous trees, something you rarely find in a sparrow. The goldfinch, which is also a sparrow, cuts its singing notes more than a sparrow, but it also sounds as cheerful as a sparrow!

In April and May, male sparrows sing prolifically. When they start breeding, they regularly form groups and then they can also sing together. The sparrow belongs to the sparrows. The male is beautifully colored with a warm brown back and rose-red chest and cap. Females and immature birds do not have a red color in their feathers. In July birds often forage together. They are fond of the seeds of many grasses and weeds, such as rosemary and pigweed.

The sparrow is a very social bird that lives along with its idiosyncrasies. In addition to living and breeding together, they also move in groups. Around mid-October, the sparrow migrates to southern Spain and Morocco. However, you can observe the sparrow in our country all year round, because the sparrow from Scandinavia sometimes comes to winter in our country.

For the Bird Song 2024 cycle, Radio Vroege Vogels comes out with two great experts on bird song. Bird watcher Dick de Vos has developed an identification key for naming birds by their song and/or call. He has written about this, among other things, in the books What’s Singing There and The Field Guide to Bird Song. Henk Meeuwsen started making sound recordings in nature at an early age. In 2000 he founded Meeuwsen Natuursounds. His audio recordings can be heard in many nature films, documentaries and on an app.