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Begging Calls: Made by young birds, these plaintive calls are designed to draw attention and may include small peeps, whines and chirps. Begging calls are not usually loud, but can be heard clearly in the vicinity of a nest. Juvenile birds will continue to use these calls even after leaving the nest, and begging bird sounds are frequently accompanied by wing flutters and other motions



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Contact Calls: When birds travel in flocks or when they want to signal one another, they use contact calls. These are moderately loud chirps, chips, buzzes and other simple bird sounds that are clear but not as piercing as alarm calls. Mates may use them to keep in touch with one another, or contact calls may be used to alert other birds to a good food source



Flight Calls: Many birds have specific calls they will give only in flight, and these can be some of the most useful bird sounds to learn for identifying birds. A flight call may sound similar to contact syllables or it may be slightly more musical, but in general they are used for birds to announce their presence to others while moving



Songs: Songs are the most distinctive and familiar bird sounds. These are longer, more elaborate and generally more musical strings of syllables that have many purposes. Birds may use songs to attract mates, to advertise their territory or to discourage intruders. The quality, duration and variation of bird songs depend on the species, and there are also geographic song variations in bird populations. Birds may also have different songs for different times of day, and some birds, such as the northern mockingbird, are excellent mimics of other bird species’ songs and unusual noises



Nonvocal Sounds: Many bird species incorporate nonverbal sounds into their language, some of which can function similarly to calls or songs. Drumming, wing beats, wing clapping and bill snaps are all part of birds’ nonverbal communication. Similarly, a bird’s feeding or mating behavior may produce additional sounds such as “booms” at the bottom of dives or scratching noises while foraging that can be useful in proper identification