Develop techniques for listening to bird songs that you can apply to learning the birds in your area.
- Build skills using exclusive learning tools
- Practice listening for birds in real soundscapes
- Get expert birding-by-ear tips from Cornell Lab staff
$39.99
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About This Course
- Lessons inside: 8
- Topics inside: 25
- Completion time (estimated): 3 hours
- Instructional videos: 25
- Total instructional video time: 44 minutes
- Level: Beginner
- Categories: Bird Identification, Nature Appreciation
- Regionality: United States/Canada – General
- CEU credits: 0.3 (optional additional purchase)
- Self-paced, no expiration date, 100% online
- 60-day refund guarantee
“You’ve just stepped outside and there’s an unfamiliar chirping nearby. A quick look around and there is no bird in sight, but the song keeps coming. Frustratingly, you have no idea who is singing. On top of that, you hear a bunch of other birds in the distance. It’s happened to all of us. We developed this course to help you learn how to tune in to bird song and gain confidence in birding by ear.”
Travel across the country exploring real soundscapes with Dr. Sarah Wagner as your guide. She’ll introduce you to an exciting variety of wild voices and bring in Cornell Lab experts to teach you tips and tricks for tuning in to them. You’ll explore 7 natural soundscapes and get to know 18 featured birds before unleashing your new listening skills on a mystery soundscape. You’ll watch field clips of birds singing, get to know their songs, and then learn to recognize them in context with our Bird Song Spotlight tool.
Bird Academy has developed a unique approach to teach you how to listen to bird songs in their natural soundscapes. Watch the video below to see it in action:
Who This Course is For
Is this course for beginners?
Yes, we designed this course to support anyone just getting started with birding by ear—whether or not you are confident in identifying the birds you see.
Can I take this course if I use a screen reader or other assistive technology?
Yes. This course is designed to work with a screen reader and be accessible for those learning entirely by ear. While there are elements of the course that use visualizations to enhance the learning experience, they are a supplement, not a requirement.
Will I learn the bird songs from my area?
This course is focused on helping you develop listening techniques so that you can go beyond the course material to learn the birds in your area. It also includes information about how to use the Merlin App to help you identify bird sounds in real time so that you can build up your local knowledge quickly.
How to Identify Bird Songs uses a unique teaching approach. Travel North America visiting real soundscapes.
Try a free sample lesson
Get started building up your birding-by-ear toolbox—learn how to visualize and describe bird song and commit sounds to memory with a little beak reading. Get tips on how to use natural history cues to help you narrow down your identification.
Explore a serene soundscape from the mountains of California and then go deeper to learn which bird voices are joining the dawn chorus. Plus get expert listening tips for training your ear to notice the subtle bird sounds mixed in among the more obvious ones.
Visit a healthy woodland in central New York full of birds singing their hearts out and train your ear to distinguish among the distinct voices. Learn the difference between bird calls and songs.
Journey to a remote volcanic island off the coast of Alaska where seabirds and forest songbirds create an abundance of sound. Learn the difference between the songs of thrushes and wrens.
It’s oasis time. Listen to the birds (and insects!) clustered near the small Bill Williams river in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona. Develop your skill in isolating one bird song from another with expert tips on how to tune in to directional cues in the field.
Tune in as some beautiful songsters announce themselves in a peaceful scene from coastal Maine surrounded by a balsam fir forest and calm inlet waters. Explore ways to categorize the pitch and sound quality of a bird song—is it high-pitched, low-pitched, buzzy, chipping, or trilling?
Visit a birding hotspot in Texas Hill Country where you’ll meet not one but two endangered songbirds. Practice paying attention to the entire song – don’t expect to be able to identify the bird in the first few notes. For some species you need to hear the whole thing.
Now that you’ve trained your ear to listen for all kinds of bird songs, get tips for putting your new skills to work identifying the birds that live near you. Take the Mystery Soundscape Challenge to practice and earn your certificate.
This authoritative audio collection from the Cornell Lab’s Macaulay Library is included as a free bonus with the course to help you learn the voices of the birds that live near you. Within the course, you’ll receive online access to this digital collection featuring the most common songs and calls of 729 North American species with more than 1,300 mp3 files included. Another great tool for your birding-by-ear toolbox!
Dr. Sarah Wagner is a course developer for the Cornell Lab’s Bird Academy. An accomplished field researcher specializing in feeding biology of…
Feeder Birds: Identification and Behavior
Mya Thompson is the Co-Director of Engagement in Science and Nature at the Cornell Lab and founder of Bird Academy. She specializes in creating…
Feeder Birds: Identification and Behavior
Great course. As a beginning birder, the soundscape picture really helped me visualize the parts of the bird songs and the little quizzes helped me remember what I learned. Was afraid it was going to be too daunting, but it was fun. Thanks so much.” Bird Academy Student
The spectrograms were very useful and breaking them down into each bird’s song so we could focus on its spectrogram was so valuable. Now when I go outside, I try to visualize the songs, like a spectrogram in my head, which helps me to describe the song. I hear SO much more now when I go outside.” Bird Academy Student
The repetition of seeing the bird sing in the video, listening for pitch, tone, pauses, repeat phrases, and the mnemonics all added up for a very comprehensive learning exercise. I am a fearful quiz taker & enjoyed the quizzes as well. This course was invaluable to me, a casual birder.” Bird Academy Student
I am a visual learner, so bird song hasn’t come easily for me. I have read the song descriptions before and listened to audio clips, but something about the highlighted spectrograms while hearing the songs made it click better.” Bird Academy Student
I have absolutely loved the courses. As a newer birder but an avid fan of birds, I have learned so much. Your classes are really well put together—excellent instructional design.” Margaret, Bird Academy Student
There’s nothing to be shipped, and no additional material is necessary. Bird Academy courses are online, self-paced, and there is no deadline to complete them. You can return to them for reference or practice as often as you want. All course material, practice tools, instructional videos, and quizzes are available through your web browser. Learn anytime, anywhere*. Gain the skills and understanding you’re looking for. *Requires an internet connection and a modern web browser.
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