Birdsong can be a delightful sound to hear at dawn and dusk. The calls of song thrushes and house martins can be welcome sounds in places full of busy noises, and spotting a chiffchaff flitting about in a tree can make you stop and take notice of nature for a while.
As the days warm up, opening your window on an early morning can bring the freshness of the season into your home. When you take a moment to listen, you'll begin to notice different calls of birds enjoying the bluer skies with you. Birdsong is a sign that native species have returned to our gardens and streets, telling us that sunnier days are on their way.
Enjoy the chorus of birdsong wherever you may be, and share videos and photos with loved ones to connect others to what you hear. Though others may seem far away right now, hearing birdsong together can bring a sense of peace in turbulent times. Why not video call a loved one in your garden to experience this together?
Birds to spot over spring
Bullfinch
Bullfinches are bright rose-red with a smart black cap. Listen out for a couple of low whistles, and keep watch high up in the hedgerows or fruit trees, and there you may see bullfinches methodically eating fresh flowering buds.
Chiffchaff
As soon as March arrives, so does the two-note call of the chiffchaff. The bird is named after its call. They're little green-brown leaf warblers with a pale eye-stripe, flitting around in the higher branches of trees and bushes.
Song thrush
The song thrush perches in the treetops to sing its heart out in a pattern of identical repeated phrases. If you see a bird with a spotted breast and pale brown back, it's sure to be a song thrush.
Swallows
Swallows are metallic blue with long tail streamers and a dash of fire-red at their throat and you will most likely see them first gliding low over the meadow grass or dipping into a pond.
Willow warbler
The song of a willow warbler can be heard around April. They are close cousins of the chiffchaff, and are pale brown and a little more difficult to spot.
Teach yourself how to recognise different birdsong
Listen to the dawn chorus wherever you are with this immersive recording of birdsong. You'll be able to hear robins, jenny wrens, song thrushes and more. Scroll down to learn what birds you're hearing at different points in the audio.
There are nearly 600 species of birds known in the UK, from resident garden birds to seasonal migratory visitors. We've pulled together some top tips that you can use for spotting our feathered friends outside your window or in your garden.
Practice makes perfect
If you’re confused between two species the best thing to do is to read about them and then seek each species out in its natural habitat. Once you've got a good description of the bird, and the more you experience a bird’s behaviour, the better you’ll be at spotting it in the future.
Understanding the structure of birds’ bodies and the terms used, particularly for different groups of feathers, is useful knowledge to have to hand in the field, especially when referring to identification guides.
Listen out
Another way to identify different species is through their songs and, surprisingly, they are relatively easy to learn.
You’ll already recognise blackbird, blue tit, chiffchaff and robin calls without even realising it. The RSPB eGuide to British Birds app is a really helpful tool for checking birdsong you hear when you’re out spotting.
Bird-friendly gardens
Some of the easiest bird species to spot are our native garden birds, and you can improve your chances by creating a welcoming habitat for them. A garden full of native shrubs, flowers and grasses and free of excessive fertilizer and pesticide will be much more inviting for birds and may tempt in some unusual ones. Plants such as rowan, wild cherry and elder are particularly good – birds will love their berries and the insects they attract.
It’s not a good idea to feed wild birds bread in your garden – it’s not good for them and you’ll be more likely to attract crows instead.
If you do feed birds peanuts, crush them up first as young birds can choke on full-sized nuts. Overall the best approach is to feed birds foods that would naturally be growing at that time of year – seeds in the summer, nuts in the autumn.
