Bird Hawk Alerts

If you listen closely when a hawk is first detected by a flock of feeding birds, you will hear a sudden change in the tone of the birds' chatter. Small birds have special tones that they use when sounding an alert. Normally, it is easy to tell where a small bird is by simply listening. Their chips and chirps have sharp beginnings and endings. These are tonal qualities that make it easy to locate the source of the sound. But when the hawk approaches a flock, a small birds' tone changes to reduce the sharp beginnings and endings of the chirps. These changes in tonal qualities make it more difficult to tell where the sounds are coming from. The birds become ventriloquists so as not to give away their location to the threatening predator. When you hear the change, it may mean a hawk is about to visit your feeder.