Birds' chirping can be divided into 3 types including singing,
crying and voice imitating. Singing normally is a continuous
multisyllable melody uttered by the birds under the control of sex
hormone. Some sorts of singing are quite melodious and agreeable.
During its breeding period, the varied and agreeable cries uttered
by male birds are typical singings. Singing is an important way for
birds to allocate and defend their territories, to pronounce it has
occupied a place and to warn other birds not to enter the area. The
songs uttered by birds in singing are more varied and complicated
than their common cries, which mainly happen in the breeding period in spring and summer. Cries are not controlled by sex hormone and
can be uttered by both male and female birds. Usually cries of birds
are short and simple. But the cries of birds mean a lot. They are used
to communicate with one another and to inform one another about
dangerous information. The cries of birds can express calling,
warning, surprising and threatening. Sometimes it is very difficult
to differentiate crying and singing. Generally speaking, cries are
not affected by the change of seasons and can be uttered by all
birds. It is an important way for birds to communicate with one
another. Voice imitating means a bird to imitate the crying or voice
of other birds. The biological meaning of voice imitating is not
clear until up to now.
There are 5 basic elements in all kinds of birds' cries.
Time:
the time the cries last.
Tone: the high or low of the cries.
Loudness: the power and volume of the cries.
Tone quality: the sound quality of the cries, which is often
described through voices similar to the birds' crying. So to
speak, the crying of a bird is like whistling or the friction sound
of metals.
Syllables: what kind of syllables
does the crying consist of? How
many syllables are included in a set of crying? If some sounds are
all repeated, they will be addressed as a degree of sounds. The
degree is often indicated with similar Chinese characters or pingyin.
For example, the crying of Cuckoo has a degree of 2 sounds, it is
recorded as ¡°bugu_, bugu_¡±.
The singing of birds can be used to identify the specific kind of
birds. But this is not always accurate. Some birds can sing a very
long time to several minutes; others are rather short, only
a few seconds. Besides, for some birds, there is a long interval
period between their singing.
Let us listen to the singing of the birds.
