{"id":6575,"date":"2021-03-30T12:52:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T10:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/bibliotheek\/identifying-birds\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T17:26:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T15:26:46","slug":"identifying-birds","status":"publish","type":"library_pt","link":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/library\/kolommen\/identifying-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Identifying Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-post-date\"><time datetime=\"2021-03-30T12:52:00+02:00\">30 March 2021<\/time><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My backyard in the city is always bustling with birds. It helps that there\u2019s a pond in the yard, that there are a few cluttered corners where I don\u2019t clear away the leaves, and that I make sure there\u2019s always something for them to eat. In the winter, I scatter (bread) crumbs and birdseed, hang some suet balls, and put out a jar of bird peanut butter. I place pieces of apple here and there, and for the greenfinches, finches, siskins, and various types of titmice, there\u2019s a feeder with (unhulled) striped sunflower seeds. On winter days, the birds fly back and forth all day long, and when dusk begins to fall, it really gets busy. All the birds rush over quickly to grab a bite to eat before nightfall.     <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the morning, as the light begins to break, things get busy again because, after the long, cold winter night, it\u2019s time to eat once more. The greenfinches, finches, and siskins arrive in small groups all at once, fluttering and squawking as they squabble with one another. The house sparrows are also always huddled together in cozy groups and communicate with each other by chirping at a deafening volume. The various titmice keep more distance from one another, but constantly chirp back and forth in a question-and-answer pattern.   <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Three little brown birds<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three small brown birds are hard to tell apart by their calls, and because they\u2019re so small, they\u2019re often hard to spot\u2014especially with just one eye. The smallest is the wren; it\u2019s also called \u201cLittle Jantje.\u201d It\u2019s a tiny brown ball of a bird with an upright tail. It hops back and forth very quickly. For such a small bird\u2014barely 9 cm long\u2014it makes an astonishing amount of noise. Its song is beautifully clear, and as it hops, it makes a shrill, metallic sound that clicks rapidly in succession: tek-tek-tek-tek. The dunnock is also brown, but speckled, and has a blue-brown head. It doesn\u2019t hop like most birds do, but runs back and forth on its short little legs. Chances are, if you see it running, you\u2019ll think it\u2019s a little mouse. In between all that running, the dunnock whistles a clear, metallic song. The largest of these three birds is the robin, which you\u2019ll recognize immediately by its bright red breast. Identifying them by sound is trickier, because its ticking \u201ctek-tek-tek-tek\u201d call sounds a lot like that of the wren, and its loud, shrill song\u2014which it uses to warn intruders in its territory\u2014bears a striking resemblance to the song of the dunnock. The robin is the first little bird I see when I open the curtains in the morning. It sits on a post or on the garden table and looks at me questioningly, as if to say, \u201cI was the one singing\u2014am I getting something to eat now?\u201d I reward him with a handful of birdseed!              <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Most Famous City Bird: Blackbird<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best-known urban and garden bird is probably the blackbird; the English call it \u201cBlackbird.\u201d That name fits perfectly for this black bird with its orange beak. Early in the morning or at dusk, it sits in a tall tree or on a chimney, singing beautifully. Every blackbird has its own repertoire. In the trilling, rolling song of the blackbird in my garden, I recognize melodies from classical music. When I walk through the city center, I often hear a blackbird whose song sounds a lot like the music of the Beatles. I\u2019ll pause for a moment to listen and watch. Usually, people walk past me without hearing or seeing it, but sometimes they stop to look and listen too. Recently, a man and a woman also paused for a moment, and the woman whispered to the man, \u201cBlackbird!\u201d They walked on, laughing, and the man whistled the Beatles song that I\u2019d also heard in the blackbird\u2019s song\u2014\u201cBlackbird.\u201d         <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Anita Hol-Bubeck<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHow do you spot them so quickly?\u201d fellow hikers often ask when I point out a bird during a hike. Then I just laugh it off a little and say something like, \u201cWell, that one eye of mine works like a charm!\u201d That\u2019s actually true, but I\u2019m really cheating a little, because I often recognize them first by their specific call and then look for where the sound is coming from. I hear them before I see them. Recognizing bird calls isn\u2019t easy, but I really enjoy it, and I always find myself listening to them without even realizing it.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6576,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_daextauttol_enable_tooltips":""},"library_cat":[112],"class_list":["post-6575","library_pt","type-library_pt","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","library_cat-kolommen"],"acf":[],"permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_pt\/6575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_pt"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/library_pt"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"library_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_cat?post=6575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}