1. Listen to Birds Singing Learn About Science James de Winter birdsong@cambridgescience.co.uk
Physics and Birdsong Logo by Matt Sewell
Images:
Individual image sources are noted in notes pages for each slide.
The majority of images come from The Sound Approach with permission.
Other images are taken from Wikipedia with appropriate attribution/CC details included

2. Some common UK Birds
This slide is designed as an introduction, to help children connect the sounds that birds make to what they look like.
The birds chosen are some of the most common birds that they may see or hear in the UK.
Some of these birds songs will feature later when the children learn about sonograms
Images:
Great Tit: "Parus major -Kew Gardens, London, England-8" by Dan - originally posted to Flickr as bird. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons -
Blackbird: "Common Blackbird" by Andreas Trepte - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons -
Robin: "Erithacus rubecula with cocked head" by © Francis C. Franklin / CC-BY-SA-3.0. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons -
Collared Dove: Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK : Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
Audio
Great Tit: Peter
Robin:
Blackbird: Peter
Collared Dove:

3. Some less common UK Birds
This slide is designed as a possible follow on from the previous slide – some less common birds.
These birds have been chosen to show the different between high and low notes
Some children will recognise the cuckoo sound although they may never have seen one.
Bittern – 160Hz
Cuckoo – 570Hz and 520Hz
Sandpiper – 4.8kHz
Goldcrest – 7KHz
Images:
Bittern, Cuckoo, Goldcrest (from The Sound Approach)
Sandpiper: Image from Marek Szczepanek shared under CC
Cuckoo: canorus vogelartinfo chris romeiks CHR0791 cropped" by Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791.jpg: Vogelartinfoderivative work: Bogbumper (talk) - Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791.jpg. Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Commons - opped.jpg#/media/File:Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791_cropped.jpg

4. What do different frequencies sound like?
We measure the frequency (pitch) of the sound we hear in Hertz (Hz). Sounds is caused by vibrations and one Hertz is one vibration per second.
The Bittern produces a sound or around a 160 vibrations a second (167Hz)
The Common Cuckoo sings a bit above 500Hz (570Hz, 520Hz)
The Common Sandpiper sings at about 5000Hz (4.8kHz)
The Goldcrest is about 7000Hz (7kHz)
Low Frequency
Not all birds sing with exactly the same frequency pattern – these numbers come from analysis of the recordings/files from The Sound Approach CD/Book.
These are the same four birds from the previous slide.
If using this with younger children (KS1), you can remove the frequency numbers from this slide.
High Frequency

5. Birds span almost the full human hearing range
Great Bittern (167Hz)
Ural Owl (370Hz)
Common Cuckoo (570Hz, 520Hz)
Little Owl (1.2kHz)
Common Redshank (2.33kHz)
Common Sandpiper (4.8kHz)
Goldcrest (7kHz)
Lesser Whitethroat (11.7– 12.3kHz)
(the first few notes are the very high ones)
If using this with younger children (KS1), you can remove the frequency numbers from this slide.
The main aim of this slide is to try and show the range of bird sounds from low frequency to high and to note that very high notes (above 20kHz) and very low notes (under 20Hz) cannot be heard by humans. It is common, as you get older for the upper range to drop and so there may be sounds that the children can hear but you cannot.
Images
Bittern, Cuckoo, Goldcrest, Redshank, Little Owl and Lesser Whitethoat (Provided by the Sound Approach)
Sandpiper: Image from Marek Szczepanek shared under CC
Ural Owl: Image from Hans Hillewaert, shared under CC

6. The sonogram The sonogram is a way of drawing a ‘picture’ of a sound.
It is a graph showing how the frequency of the sound changes over time.
Frequency
Time
The next few slides provide an introduction to the idea of a sonogram and then help students become familiar with drawing and ‘seeing’ with them.
As well as using the birdsong as a context, my other main science teaching thread in this work is to develop/support the use of graph drawing as a way to show/describe patterns as well as more generally develop students ability to interpret, process and use graphs to present information, even if there are not numerical scales.
Many of the graphs used here do not have numbers on them and this is deliberate. Whilst this is an important aspect of graph drawing, I feel that sometimes the addition of numbers can add an extra layer of detail that can not always be helpful. The aim is to show how that the sonogram graphs can describe the sound in a potentially complex and versatile fashion without the need for numbers.

7. The sonogram An easy one to begin with A note of constant frequency
Time

8. The sonogram An easy one to begin with A note of constant frequency
Time

9. The sonogram The sonogram shows changes with time
A pulsed note of constant frequency
Frequency
Time

10. The sonogram The sonogram shows changes with time
A pulsed note of constant frequency
Frequency
Time

11. Notes can go up as well as down
Look at the graph and imagine what the sound will be like.
Frequency
Time

12. Now to try with some real birds

13. The Chiffchaff
Listen and sketch the sonogram
Frequency
Time

14. The Chiffchaff Four short notes, each rising in frequency (pitch)
Time
Note four calls, frequency increasing, roughly evenly spaced

15. Another Chiffchaff – The Iberian
Frequency
Time
Image
Hint: This time think about the time between calls as well

16. Another Chiffchaff – The Iberian
Frequency
Time
Four notes the same but the last two are closer together.
This is a nice development where they need to think about the relative spaces between lines.

17. Now you can draw sonograms, let’s look at some common British birds

18. The cuckoo Listen to the sound and try and draw the sonogram
In a discussion on mnemonics “some birds help us by having the name that matched the call”
Some children may have heard a cuckoo but they are rather hard to spot.
IMAGE CREDIT: canorus vogelartinfo chris romeiks CHR0791 cropped" by Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791.jpg: Vogelartinfoderivative work: Bogbumper (talk) - Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791.jpg. Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Commons - opped.jpg#/media/File:Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791_cropped.jpg

19. The cuckoo Listen to the sound and try and draw the sonogram
The key idea here is that there are two notes, the first note is higher than the second.
IMAGE CREDIT: "Cuculus canorus vogelartinfo chris romeiks CHR0791 cropped" by Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791.jpg: Vogelartinfoderivative work: Bogbumper (talk) - Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791.jpg. Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Commons -

20. The Great Tit
Listen to the song of the great tit then try and pick which one you think is the correct sonogram
B is the correct answer.
The key idea here is that there are two different notes.
The song is sometimes said to sound like “tea-cher” A B

21. The Collared Dove
Listen to the sound and try and draw the sonogram (the bird calls twice)
Sound from

22. The Collared Dove
Listen to the sound and try and draw the sonogram (the bird calls twice)
The key idea here is that there are three notes
Not quite as important is that the length of the notes is different (second one being the longest) and that spacing between them changes (there can be a different length gap between first and second compared to second and third notes)

23. The collared dove and the wood pigeon
People often talk about ‘pigeons’ but this may mean one of several different birds. The collared dove and wood pigeon are two of the most common birds that some people call a pigeon.
Images: Wood Pigeon:
"Columba palumbus -garden post-8" by Tristan Ferne from UK - Our woodpigeonUploaded by Snowmanradio. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons -
Collared Dove Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK : Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
A collared dove
A wood pigeon

24. The collared dove and the wood pigeon
The wood pigeon has a call similar to the collared dove but the wood pigeon usually has a five note call rather than a three note call. Listen to the sounds below and decide which one is the collared doves (3 notes) and which one is the wood pigeon (5 notes). Each bird calls twice
Wood Pigeon
Sound from
Collared Dove
Sound from A B

25. The wood pigeon
Listen to the sound and try and draw the sonogram (the bird calls twice)
The key idea here is that there are five notes
Sound from

26. The wood pigeon
Listen to the sound and try and draw the sonogram (the bird calls twice)
The key idea here is that there are five notes

27. Remembering bird songs
To help remember birds calls and songs, some people make up phrases.
An example for the collared dove is
“ I loooove you”
The two note call of the great tit, remembered as
“tea-cher, tea-cher, tea-cher, ”
Try and make one up for the wood pigeon yourself

28. A quick quiz – which is which?B
Play the sounds and see if they can work out which is which.
These are complex, professional sonograms but the spacing between the sounds can help children identify which is which.
Red-Breasted Flycatcher
Wren

29. A quick quiz – which is which?
Red-Breasted Flycatcher
Wren

30. It’s time to play... Sing-a-long-a-sonogram
This is meant to be a ‘fun’ classroom activity where you get the class to sing the sonograms to each other splitting the group into boys/girls.
The idea is that the boys sing the blue lines and the girls the pink. Of course if you are in a single sex school, oppose gender colour stereotyping or want to change things then be my guest. But I'd suggest giving it a go, it is fun, honest.

31. Boys
Girls
Frequency
Time

32. Boys
Girls
Frequency
Time

33. Boys
Girls
Frequency
Time

34. Frequency
Time

35. Frequency
Time

36. Portable sonograms
There are various free of cheap Smartphone apps that will draw a sonogram (sometimes called a spectrogram) from the phone’s microphone. My picks for each platform are below
IPhone/Ipod Touch: Spectrogram Pro (around £2) (left image)
Android: Spectral Audio Analyzer Pro: (around £4 but a free version is (right image)

37. Sonograms are used in ‘proper’ science You can use sonograms to identify birds and black holes even if you cannot see them
The Brown Fish Owl
The purpose of this extra section is to make the point to students that the use of sonograms is part of proper scientific research. Fun as well bit also ‘proper’ science. More details of brown own research at the SA website:
Images from the Sound Approach

38. The Brown Fish Owl
Example sounds and sonograms from the Brown Fish Owl resaerch.

41. A different graph can tell us how loudness varies over time
Introducing the idea of loudness over time
The loudness stays the same

42. A different graph can tell us how loudness varies over time
Introducing the idea of loudness over time
The sound gets louder

43. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Loudness
Time
Image from the Sound Approach

44. The loudness of the drumming stays roughly the same
Time
Image from the Sound Approach

45. The Greater Spotted Woodpecker
Loudness
Time
I often just let everyone have a go with this one, often they get the right idea but it is easier to talk about the shape after you have shown the ‘correct’ graph.
Image from the Sound Approach

46. The loudness decreases over time
The key idea here is that it gets a quieter over time
Image from the Sound Approach

47. Greater vs. Lesser
Images from the Sound Approach

48. A Bearded Seal
Mention the amazing Webdell seals in the film Encounters and the End of the World
If you haven’t head them you must have a look/listen – they really are something else.

49. Image painted by Matt Sewell for this pack.