Birds That Say Their Names

Video Transcript

"Hello. Welcome to Expert Village. My name is Wayne Petersen and I'm the director of the Important Bird Areas Program for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Today, we're here at the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield. And, we're going to be talking about birding by ear. As we stated in an earlier segment, there are various components to remembering and learning bird songs as a way, as an aid to identification. One of the things that can be a problem for some people is the concept of remembering songs, the whole issue of auditory memory. But, there are some birds who actually say their names and every time that we hear them, we're reminded of what they are. For example, the Killdeer, a plover upland feels. This is a bird that actually says its name and gives the very strident Killdee, Killdee, Killdee. A bird that lots of people probably associate with summer camp as kids is the Whippoorwill. This is a forest bird that gives its chanting Whippoorwill, Whippoorwill at night oftentimes keeping campers in the out-of-doors awake by their persistent calling of their name. Birds like the familiar Black Capped Chickadee, our state bird here in Massachusetts, is a bird that actually says as one of its vocalizations, Chickadeedeedee. Some of the flycatchers, for example, like the Eastern Wood-Pewee actually whistle, PeeWee. And probably one of the easiest and most familiar birds for people to recognize is our familiar quail or Northern Bobwhite."