Late September is the time to listen for the magic sounds that announce autumn. If you are used to listening to birds, recent months may have seemed increasingly quiet and uneventful as spring and ...

NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Matthew Medler of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology about the best bird sounds of 2025 from their vast collection of recordings, and why their selections made the list.

Bird sounds that always make me chuckle are those of the red-breasted nuthatch. I won’t call them songs because they don’t meet most people’s idea of “song.” The most common call of this species is ...

Birds don't just sing for beauty, their voices carry messages, warnings, and even regional dialects that reveal a hidden world of communication. Bird sounds offer insight into how intelligent and ...

If you were old enough to buy CDs in the ’90s, you may remember listening stations at superstores that featured music by some of nature’s noisiest creatures: birds. These CDs blended classical music ...

We become desensitized to the common sounds around us—car alarms, chattering squirrels, the mechanical functions of modern living kicking on and off throughout the day. If you had asked me a week ago ...

Part 1. 'I don't do calls' -- Crossing the sound barrier -- Tone and timpre -- Pitch and frequency -- Rhythm and timing -- Part 2. Put it all together and what have you got? -- Simple calls -- Simple ...

Cowbirds are special among songbirds for the "watery" timbre of their singing, which resembles the sound of falling droplets striking water, a quick burst followed by a fading ripple.

MINNESOTA, USA — "Imagine now, a clear summer evening in the north woods. Above you, the bands of the Milky Way framed by the dark spindly boughs of spruce and fir. And cutting though the stillness ...

Scientists brought to life the silent, sleeping songs of two great kiskadees. Andrej Chudý via Flickr under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED While birds are fast asleep, their brains remain active, firing off ...