Listening Before Looking

Most birds in a British wood will never give you a clean look. They sit high in the canopy, move along the far side of a trunk, or slip behind leaves just as you raise your binoculars. Learning to identify by voice first, and confirm with a view afterwards, is the practical way forward. Three species cause more confusion than any others: nuthatch, treecreeper and great spotted woodpecker.

Woodland management shapes what you hear. A wood in rotation, with coppice coupes of different ages, a scatter of standards, wide rides and a few dead limbs left standing, has layers of structure for sound to travel through. An unmanaged wood of even-aged shade is quieter than most people expect.

The Nuthatch: A Ringing, Whistled Note

The nuthatch gives itself away with a loud, emphatic whistle, dwip or chwit, repeated in a steady run of six or eight notes. It carries a long way and cuts through wind and other birdsong. Written down it looks like wip-wip-wip-wip: each note clear, slightly clipped, faintly complaining. Some say it sounds like a small bird blowing its nose at you.

Alongside that main call is a hard, rattling trill, a rapid trrrrrr, given when the bird is agitated by an owl, a cat, or you standing too close to a nest hole. Pairs also exchange a soft ticking contact note.

The call alone is usually enough. No other common woodland bird gives such firm, whistled, repeated notes from mid-height in a mature tree. When the bird does show, it climbs up and down trunks, descending head-first, which no other British bird routinely does.

The Treecreeper: High, Thin and Easy to Miss

The treecreeper sits at the opposite end of the scale. Its call is a very thin, high, sibilant see or tsee, sometimes doubled, sometimes repeated slowly as the bird works up a trunk. Many people over fifty cannot hear it at all; it sits near the top of the audible range.

The song is equally delicate: a short trill of fine notes, beginning high, dropping slightly, then stopping abruptly as if the bird changed its mind. It lasts barely a few seconds.

Because it is so faint, you identify it by the shape of the sound rather than the volume. Stand still and listen for a thread of noise, like a mouse squeaking at the top of a birch. If you can follow it, look for a small brown bird creeping upwards in short spirals, then flying down to the foot of the next tree to begin again. It never comes down a trunk head-first, which is the nuthatch's trick.

The Great Spotted Woodpecker: Sharp Note and Drum Roll

The great spotted woodpecker has two sounds worth knowing. The first is a single, explosive kik! or tchik, sharp and hard, like a small dry branch snapping underfoot. Birds often give two or three in quick succession, and the note carries well. Its alarm is a rattling, scolding krrrrrk.

The second is the drumming: a very fast, mechanical burst, usually under a second long, ending as abruptly as it begins. It is a territorial and pairing signal, most frequent from February to April, and it is not feeding. The bird chooses a dead or dying limb with good resonance, often ash, oak or beech.

Compare it with the green woodpecker's yaffle, a laughing, descending peal given from the ground or a low perch. The lesser spotted woodpecker drums longer and softer, but that species is now scarce and local.

For anyone working in the wood, drumming is a useful marker. Retaining standing deadwood, a few snags to the hectare and dead limbs on living trees, gives woodpeckers both their instruments and their nest sites, and costs the timber crop very little.

The Three Side by Side

• Nuthatch: loud, whistled dwip-dwip-dwip, ringing, often six or more notes, plus a rattling trill. Climbs down trunks head-first. Mature woodland with big trees and old nest holes; absent from Ireland.
• Treecreeper: very high, thin see notes and a brief fading trill. Creeps upwards in spirals, flies to the base of the next tree. Easiest to hear in quiet, sheltered stands.
• Great spotted woodpecker: sharp kik! and a short, fast drum roll. Loud, confident, often overhead. Favours woods with deadwood and large trees.

Getting Your Ear In

Recordings help, but nothing replaces time in the wood. Go early, from March onwards, and pick a morning with little wind. Stand still for ten minutes rather than walking constantly; most birds fall silent as you approach and resume once you settle.

Learn one voice at a time. Spend a whole morning on the nuthatch, then another on the treecreeper. Cupping your hands behind your ears gathers sound, and if the treecreeper defeats you, take along a younger companion, whose hearing at the top of the range is usually better.

Note the pitch, the rhythm and how the notes repeat. A wood in good heart, with coppice, standards, open rides and standing deadwood, will give you plenty of practice.