Once you are attuned, every singing bird becomes interesting. That’s every individual, whether flycatcher, vireo, chickadee, wren, thrush (no such thing as “just a robin”), sparrow, blackbird, grosbeak, warbler, you name it. We will explore the world of birdsong: songs and calls, female song, song learning and dialects, mimicry, matched counter-singing and counter-calling, night singing, complex songs, repertoires, dawn singing, and frolic in the extraordinary beauty of it all.
Donald Kroodsma is a birdsong scientist and professor emeritus of ornithology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. As a research scientist, he published widely on birdsong for more than 50 years, with lifetime achievement awards from the American Ornithologists’ Union and the Wilson Ornithological Society. More recently he has authored books that introduce the general public to birdsong: the John Burroughs Medal-winning The Singing Life of Birds, The Backyard Birdsong Guides, Birdsong by the Seasons, and Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific. His most recent book (2020), Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist, is a basic, how-to guide that teaches anyone—from beginner to advanced birder—how to listen. He lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts.