Air Date: Week of October 9, 2026

Listeners may confuse the call of the red-bellied woodpecker, above, with the bark of a fox squirrel. (Photo: John Brighenti, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)

Keep your ears peeled this fall for the sounds of animals as they go about preparing for winter. You might be surprised at just who is making those chirps and barks. BirdNote®’s Ariana Remmel reports.

Transcript

DOERING: Keep your ears peeled this fall for the sounds of animals as they go about preparing for winter. You might be surprised at just who is making those chirps and barks. BirdNote®’s Ariana Remmel reports.

BirdNote®
Squirrel or Bird?
Written by Conor Gearin

[Fox Squirrel barks]

Identifying birds by ear means getting familiar with each species’ unique voice. And that means learning the other voices in the ecosystem, too. Like the Fox Squirrel’s barks:

[Fox Squirrel barks]

This squirrel’s alarm barks could at first sound like the calls of a Red-bellied Woodpecker:

[Red-bellied Woodpecker calls]

But with enough practice, you can hear how the squirrel’s barks are more throaty, and more frequent than the woodpecker. Here’s the squirrel again:

[Squirrel barks]

And the woodpecker:

[Red-bellied Woodpecker calls]

That’s not the only voice that could trip you up in the forest — take a listen to this cute little trill:

[Eastern Chipmunk chip-trill call]

While it might sound a bit like a kingbird, it’s really the chip-trill call of a chipmunk, given when they’re telling another chipmunk to back off.

[Eastern Chipmunk chip-trill call]

In comparison, Eastern Kingbirds sound more shrill, increasing in volume rather than decreasing as they continue:

[Eastern Kingbird call]

Here’s the chipmunk again:

[Eastern Chipmunk chip-trill call]

And here’s the kingbird:

[Eastern Kingbird call]

Eventually, you might recognize each species’ voice, like recognizing a friend. All it takes is time.

[Eastern Chipmunk chip-trill call]

I’m Ariana Remmel.
###
Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Content Director: Jonese Franklin

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Red-bellied Woodpecker ML 230037631 recorded by Wil Hershberger, and Eastern Kingbird ML 534398 recorded by Wil Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2023 BirdNote March 2023 / 2025
Narrator: Ariana Remmel
ID# sound-33-2023-03-21 sound-33

DOERING: For pictures, flap on over or scurry on over to the Living on Earth website, loe dot org.

 

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