The explosion of bird song known as the dawn chorus is reason enough to get up in the morning, but can be daunting if you are trying to filter out specific bird songs. If you are a field trip leader naming what you hear, or if you are a field trip participant trying to ask your leader about a particular vocalization, learning how to point (literally) is the key.
The basic protocol is this. First, indicate what direction the sound is coming from, and whether it is near and obvious or distant and faint. This lets everyone know how carefully they must listen to hear it. Describe the sound as best as you can—whistle, chip, buzzy, clear, loud, soft, and so forth. Compare it to a sound you already know, either bird-made or man-made.
Bird sound master Michael O’Brien, finger in the air, waits to gesture until the Worm-eating Warbler trills again.
Then, and this is key, everyone has to keep their mouth shut and listen. If a leader says the name of the bird each time it sings, its song may be overshadowed by the leader’s voice. If a querying field trip participant shouts “There it is!” every time it sings, the same thing will happen. Everyone must wait quietly. Intervals between songs can vary, so patience is essential.
Each time the target vocalization is heard, the person pointing it out gestures instantly, as it is singing if possible, by pointing their finger emphatically in the direction of the sound. If it is a repeated sound, such as the “thump-thump-thump” of a drumming Ruffed Grouse or the “wichity, wichity, whichity” of a Common Yellowthroat, it may help to gesture each time a drum is drummed or a phrase sung.
Ideally, the bird will call repeatedly, in which case it is best to point out the sound a bunch of times before saying anything, gesturing each time the sound is heard. A song or call heard twice is more than twice as good as a song or call heard just once, because the ear and brain are more prepared to process it the second time around.
It may or may not help to face the sound and cup your hands behind your ears to block off sounds from the side or rear. It definitely will help if you make sure there is nothing, such as a car, person, or tree, directly between you and the target sound. Re-position yourself if there is, just as if you were moving to get a better view.
Be aware that two birds singing concurrently can create a song similar to yet a third bird! Also remember and allow for the fact that a fragment of one bird’s vocalization snatched from the chorus can sound very similar to a completely different species’. For example, I’ve seen birders, very good ones at that, take the introductory buzz a Marsh Wren often puts in its song and turn it into the “peent” of a woodcock.
If you are new to bird sounds, it might be easier to simply enjoy the delightful rush of bird song at dawn, but get down to identifying each voice when singing tapers off about an hour after first light.