Here’s a common question from bird language beginners…
- What should I do if I’m outside and I hear something that might be an alarm?
- How can I be sure?
- How can I build my confidence about alarms?
This is a great question to ask. One of the best, actually!
I’d like to give you a strategy for bird alarm confidence that works really well for me and my students. It’s here in today’s video!
Practice watching and listening for alarms and the 4 bird alarm cues.
Then join me in the next video. I’m going to give you 5 BIG steps to success with bird language!
Grace says
Brian, I’m so very glad you mentioned having misunderstood situations when learning to discern alarm calls. It helps me relax when watching what is going on, not pressured to make the correct call every time.
I was incorrect about one of the bird species’ being a swift. Not so. It’s a barn swallow. I went out to the far end of the front porch, hidden behind a grapevine. Almost immediately I became the focus of alarm from the swallows. They buzzed me repeatedly, apparently still laying claim to their unused nest in the other end of the porch. Even juveniles were flaring their chests at me about eight to ten feet away. Was so proud of them.
Anyway, I immediately left as unobtrusively as I could manage with my cane stool and binoculars (which never made it out of the case). Actually, I was most pleased with my first foray out looking for alarm cues. In the end, the alarm escalated in intensity, lasted the entire time I was there, increased in the number of birds involved (looked like about nine or more), and the behaviors became more aggressive. So all four clues were involved in the experience.
Thank you so much for that video. What a grand adventure it was.
Brian Mertins says
Very interesting, a few thoughts & questions for you to ponder…
You say the alarm lasted the entire time you were out there. How far did you move from their nest after they initially buzzed you?
If this was an alarm, I would expect their behavior to calm down as you move further away. This would be especially true for something like a swallow because they don’t nest or feed on the ground. So did you notice any change in their overall behavior as a result of giving them more space?
Also – Did you notice any feeding activity during that whole time? Swallows are birds that catch insects on the fly, so they would be very actively flying around and quite possibly making calls while they hunt. If you were seeing feeding activity, it’s unlikely that they were actually alarmed by you.
Grace says
Brian,
You didn’t ask for a reply to your questions, but I would like to respond. I had placed myself at the far end of the porch away from their old nest; I couldn’t move farther away in that direction, as I can’t negotiate uneven ground quite yet, after hip surgery. Moving back indoors was my only option then. In observing their behavior from inside the door, the frenzy abated almost immediately, with two remaining adults buzzing through the porch to find out if I was truly gone. Their flybys were calmer, but fast.
As to any feeding behavior prior to the alarms, there was none at all. It was drizzling rain, and I saw absolutely no movement. So I hadn’t expected what happened next. I’ve seen them feeding several times in the past, so was familiar with that particular set of movements, of which there were none.
I did fail to mention earlier that the noise level increased quickly, with the chirping getting louder and almost constant.
Brian Mertins says
Aha perfect, thanks for adding those details! It’s exciting to hear your discoveries and there are certainly many more on the way 🙂
My next question for you would be around whether you can notice the rain affecting the intensity of this alarm… If you compare the frenzy behavior between rainy days VS days when they’re out flying around catching insects – what affect does that have on their alarms?
Also – The more you can track the dynamics of their feeding patterns, the easier it’ll be to spot trends in the alarm activity… So on rainy days, what do you observe about their foraging compared to fair weather days?
Grace says
Brian, I am glad for these probing questions. Will help me later when on my own. Have to be out of town for the next three days, but will pick up on your question when I return. Could not return to observing them the few days after the alarm, due to requirements on my presence indoors. Also need to find a non-threatening position from which to watch. The female took up residence on the nest the next day – so am guessing the nest had eggs in it during the alarm.
Have noticed no alarms prior to the one reported, but will certainly be much more observant when out from now on.
Hoping to have more to report on next in comment!