Learning to recognize every bird song is a daunting task. I still don’t recognize every song or call note I hear. As a beginning birdwatcher I was slow to learn the songs. It was easier to let more ...

poets and musicians, from Chaucer to Wordsworth, from Handel to Respighi. Birdsong can be a natural phenomenon of intense beauty. But our enjoyment is incidental to the main purpose, which is one bird ...