Myriad bird species will be flying through northern Illinois in the next couple of months, filling the region with bird songs as they fly to their northern breeding grounds or establish nesting spots here.
But right now on a sunny afternoon in March, I can hear three distinct bird songs that put pep in my step.
There’s no need to go to a forest preserver to hear these songs. Just step outside in your yard, or take a walk in the neighborhood where there are some trees or shrubs and listen.
“What cheer! Cheer! Cheer! Cheer!”
“Hey sweet! Hey sweetie.”
“Ooh. Ooh. Whooooo. Who. Who.”
I’m hearing the songs of northern cardinals, black-capped chickadees and another bird that some folks think is an owl calling during the day. It’s actually a mourning dove, and this common species gets its name from the woeful song it gives even before the spring equinox arrives.
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All three species live in our neighborhoods year-round, and as the amount of daylight increases, something within them tells them to sing.
Humans talk and sing with an organ called the larynx, but birds have a syrinx. The syrinx branches into two tubes. As air passes over the intersection of the tubes, sound, and often many different sounds, even two or three at a time, are produced. Some bird species like wood thrushes, which have not yet arrived here from their winter homes, can even sing rising and falling notes at the same time.
The northern cardinal is one of our most familiar songbirds and also one of the most operatic, in my opinion. Both the bright red male and the brown female sing. That’s somewhat of an anomaly in our region, although in the tropics, both sexes of bird species often sing.
Cardinals likely sing at least 28 different songs. Among the most common are those that sound like, “cheer, cheer, cheer” and “birdy, birdy, birdy.”
Hearing those lilting songs on a March day in the middle of the afternoon makes me happy. I particularly relish the cardinal’s longer song that starts with, “What– chee-ear, What-chee-ear,” before ending with the “cheer” and “birdy” sounds.
The northern cardinal starts singing as early as February here, and so too do the black-capped chickadees. Though folks often think the “chick-a-dee-dee” sound they hear year-round is the song of this species, it’s actually the call. Birds give calls to communicate and scold.
But songs are used to attract mates and tell other males to go find another partner, or, “This is close enough. You’re in my territory.” Songs are heard more often in spring and summer.
As spring approaches, chickadees sing a sweet, two or three-note melody, with the first note higher than the second. Some folks hear that second lower note repeated quickly, but either way, it’s a song you can readily distinguish. For musicians, the interval of the pitches is a minor third.
Another early songster is the mourning dove, a robin-sized bird with grayish-brown body, black spots on the wing, a long tail, and pink legs and feet.
In March, it’s not nearly as vocal as the cardinal, but stay outside for a while and you’ll likely hear its five notes. The first, third, fourth and fifth syllables are on one pitch, and the second is a higher one. For musicians like me, it sounds like two quarter notes followed by a half note, followed by two more quarter notes. The interval of the first two pitches sounds like a perfect fifth to me, but those who named the species thought the bird was singing in a minor key and gave it the name “mourning.”
Other birds, of course, are singing in March, for example, the American robin, but it seems they are more often vocal at dawn and dusk, and in the afternoon, I often only hear their scolding calls. Though you can see robins in winter even in Illinois if there are berries to eat, this species is migratory and much less abundant in the colder months.
So in March, I focus on the colorful songbirds we see year-round in northern Illinois, and am thrilled when they declare their songs to signal spring. Go outside and listen for these three bird species singing. To hear them, before you go out, type in the bird’s name and YouTube, and you’ll find several examples of these songsters belting out a melody.
Other migratory songbirds like orioles and tanagers will be here soon, and by then the cardinals, doves and chickadees will already have wooed a mate, built a nest and begun incubating eggs. I like spring to start early, and am glad some of our year-round birds fill the outdoors with music even before the leaves of trees and shrubs have unfurled.
Sheryl DeVore has worked as a full-time and freelance reporter, editor and photographer for the baiduhai and its subsidiaries. She’s the author of several books on nature and the environment. Send story ideas and thoughts to [email protected].