UK bird song identifier
Heard a bird you can't see? Listen to the songs and calls of the UK's common garden birds below, and learn to tell them apart by ear. There's nothing to upload. You listen, compare, and get to know the ones you hear most.
How to learn a bird's song
Start with the birds in your own garden, not a long list. Play a song a few times, then try to hum it back. Give each one a hook you'll remember: a Wren is astonishingly loud for its size and ends in a fast trill, a Robin is a wistful, rambling warble, a Great Tit sounds like a squeaky bicycle pump.
Songs and calls are different jobs. The song is the long performance a male uses to hold a territory, mostly spring and summer. A call is the short contact or alarm note you'll hear all year. Learn both for each bird.
Common garden birds, by ear
Real field recordings. Play the song and the call for each.
Robin
Blackbird
Wren
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Dunnock
Song Thrush
House Sparrow
Starling
Collared Dove
Make the songs stick
Learn Birds turns these recordings into quick daily practice. It plays a song and you name the bird, and spaced repetition brings each one back just before you'd forget it. Sight and song, for the UK's birds.
Free. No signup. Works offline.
Common questions
Can I identify a bird from a recording I made?
This page teaches you the songs by ear rather than analysing a clip. For learning the birds you actually hear at home, that sticks far better than a one-off match. Apps like Merlin do on-the-spot sound ID if that's what you need.
What's the difference between a song and a call?
A song is the longer, musical performance, mostly from males in spring and summer to hold a territory. A call is a short note, an alarm or a contact between birds, and you'll hear calls all year.
When is the best time to hear birdsong?
Early morning, the dawn chorus, is the loudest and most active. Spring is the peak, from March into June, when males are singing hardest.
Bird photos from iNaturalist contributors under Creative Commons: Arjan Haverkamp, Luiz Lapa, caroline legg, Bengt Nyman, hedera.baltica, William Stephens, Susan Marley, peterichman, Esteban Poveda, Iruka. Song Thrush and Starling photos are our own. Recordings are from xeno-canto contributors.