Bird Call Game: guess the bird from its sound
How to play
- Press Play today's Bird Call. The game opens with today's recording loaded.
- Tap play on the audio player. Replay it as often as you like.
- Start typing a bird's name and pick from the suggestions. Your guess must be a species in our Birdedex.
- Check the colour of your guess and the note beside it.
- Guess again. Hints appear after your third and fifth wrong guesses.
- You have six guesses. At the end the game names the bird and shows its photo and scientific name.
What the colours and hints tell you
- Green: correct bird.
- Amber: wrong bird, but it shares a rarity tier or a similar habitat with the answer. The note says which.
- Grey: wrong bird, different rarity tier and different habitat.
- Hint 1 (after three wrong guesses): the answer's rarity tier, from Common to Epic.
- Hint 2 (after five wrong guesses): the answer's habitat.
Scoring
A first-guess win earns 15 bonus points. After that it is 12, 10, 7, 5 and 3 for guesses two to six. Your first win unlocks the Sound ear badge. Bonus points count towards the leaderboard once you are signed in. The Share button copies a spoiler-free result to your clipboard.
Where the recordings come from
Clips come from the xeno-canto archive and Wikimedia Commons. Each one is credited under the player with its source, its licence and, where known, the recordist. If a clip fails to load, the game swaps in another bird.
Tips for guessing a bird call
- Decide if it is a song or a call. Song is longer and patterned, and mostly comes from males in spring. Calls are short notes used all year for contact and alarm.
- Listen to the rhythm first. A Chiffchaff sings its own name in two notes. A Great Tit see-saws between two notes. A Song Thrush repeats each phrase two to four times.
- Count the coos. A Collared Dove gives three notes. A Wood Pigeon gives five.
- Judge the tone. A Blackbird is slow and fluty. A Robin is thin and wistful. A Wren is very loud for its size and fires off a rattling trill.
- Note the pitch. A Goldcrest is so high and thin that some people cannot hear it. Crows and pigeons sit at the low end.
- Use the habitat hint. Reedbed points to Reed Warbler, Bittern or Bearded Tit.
Heard a bird outside and want a name for it? Bird Hear, our free bird song identifier, listens through your phone and suggests the species.
When does the Bird Call game reset?
A new recording appears at midnight. For players in Britain that is midnight UK time: the game goes by the date on your device. Everyone gets the same recording on the same date. There is no archive, so a missed day is gone.
Bird Call FAQ
Is the Bird Call game free?
Yes. It costs nothing and there is no app to install. It plays in your browser.
Do I need an account?
No. Guests can play every day, and today's progress is kept on your device. Sign in with Google if you want your bonus points banked on the leaderboard.
Which birds are in the bird sound game?
The daily bird is drawn from a fixed pool of 86 species. Most are familiar British birds. Some scarcer species and a few from mainland Europe are in there too. Our rarest tier, Legendary, is left out.
Can I replay the recording?
Yes. Play it as many times as you like before each guess. Replays do not cost points.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. It runs in a phone browser as well as on desktop. Headphones help with thin, high-pitched songs.
Can it identify a bird I can hear outside?
No. The game is a quiz with a set answer. To put a name to a real bird, use Bird Hear, our free bird sound identifier. It listens for 10 seconds and suggests the species.