Calls & song

Learn the calls.

Most birds in VR are heard before they are seen, and many are only ever heard. Creators build them into the ambient sound of a world, and learning to pick them out is the most rewarding thing a new member can do.
The call chart

What you might hear on a Friday

The Society keeps a friendly score of each evening, mostly so we have something to argue about. Members learn the chart by heart. A night is a good night above 30.

Heard Points
A blackbird singing Fluting, unhurried, from somewhere in the trees. The backbone of woodland ambience 2.00
A wren A tiny bird with an enormous, rattling song. You will think it is something bigger 4.00
A tawny owl, the twit and the twoo That is two owls, a female and a male, answering each other. Bonus point for knowing 6.00
A curlew A long, rising, lonely call over a shore or a moor. Somebody built that world with love 8.00
Seeing the bird you heard Song and model in the same place. The creator went the extra mile, and so did you 10.00
A gull, on a loop, for the third time It still counts. It is a very good gull 1.00
Talking over the wren We are not cross. We are a little cross -5.00
A very good Friday 26.00
Listening well

How to hear more

01

Turn the music down

Mute your own music, lower the world’s music if it has a slider, and leave the ambient sound up. Birds in VR are often mixed quietly, under everything else.

02

Stand still and turn slowly

Spatial audio tells you where a bird is. Turn your head until the song is equally loud in both ears, and the bird is in front of you.

03

Wait for the loop

If you are not sure what you heard, wait. Ambient sound repeats, and the second time you will be ready for it. This is the one way VR birding is easier than the real thing.

The last ten minutes

How every outing ends

At the end of the night we stop talking for ten minutes, all of us, and just listen to the world. Then everyone says the one bird they will remember from the evening, the log is closed, and we head home.

It is the best part of the week. Most worlds sound lovely when nobody is talking, and the people who made them deserve to be heard at least once.