Birdsong Essentials

A webinar by the American Bird Conservancy

A juvenile bobolink that I photographed while birdwatching at a nature reserve in northern Illinois many years ago.

As a graduate student in the early 1990s, I attended the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. My area of study was Applied Ecology—a flexible curriculum that allowed me to learn from some superb scientists who cared deeply about the natural environment. I worked part-time as a research assistant in a wetlands biology lab and spent the rest of my time taking courses such as aquatic chemistry, landscape ecology, earth science, and wetlands biology. I loved all the classes I took, but one course stood out as my favorite: ornithology.

The ornithology course was a blend of lectures and field outings. The lectures introduced me and my fellow students to avian biology, behavior, anatomy, and evolution. The field outings taught us how to identify birds by appearance, behavior, flight patterns, and vocalizations.

Unfortunately, I didn’t keep up with my birdwatching hobby after leaving university, but I do remember the fun and challenge of identifying birds by their songs and calls.

That’s why this past spring I signed up for the Birdsong Essentials: Enjoying Songbirds This Spring webinar when it was hosted by the American Bird Conservancy.

Watching this webinar reminded me of my fascination with birdsong identification, and rekindled my desire to develop this wonderful skill.

I hope you get as much out of this webinar I did. I also encourage you to contribute the American Bird Conservancy to support bird conservation and enable seminars like this to continue.