10 Bird Sound Effects – Free Download

Get the sounds of tweeting, birds singing, and the dawn chorus – all in this pack of royalty-free WAV-format sounds for video editors and sound designers

Some sounds seem like they’re hardwired into the human brain deeper than the need to eat breakfast! Bird chirping sounds and birdsong in general has been part of the ambient sound environment ever since humans were… well, humans. In fact – our primate ancestors, who shared the trees with a variety of birds, are probably evidence that these sounds were hardwired into our brains before we were even human!

So bird tweet sounds and other birdsong is an essential element in nature, meaning that any sound designer worth their salt should be ready to add them into a scene. And we’re here to help you with that in more ways than one!

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These birds singing and bird chirping sound effects are royalty-free for use in your projects. Enter your email to receive your download information.

But Wait! We can help you make your own Custom Bird Sounds!

‍Krotos Studio is a powerful sound design tool for filmmakers and sound designers. It’s like having a Foley studio in your computer, and it enables you to design and perform original sound effects – including bird sounds – without any need for expensive microphones or even leaving your desk! Every one of these 10 sounds was made using the free version of Krotos Studio, thanks to its Forest and Suburbs presets, which contain birdsong as well as other ambient features.

Using Krotos Studio to create your own custom birdsong

Implementing realistic sound effects into your sound design is crucial when creating an immersive experience for your listeners.

Let’s explore Krotos Studio’s Forest ambience preset to create our very own bird chirping sounds.

Step 1: Open Krotos Studio

Krotos Studio’s free version comes with two presets packed with free bird sounds. Open up Krotos Studio and select the Forest preset inside the Ambiences category.

Step 2: Set your parameters

Each preset within Krotos Studio features XY controls for you to customise your SFX. In the Forest preset, the left-hand side XY controller contains the bird tweeting sound region.

The software allows you to alter your sound effects in real-time whilst it’s recording – something you can’t do with regular, static SFX files. This means you can change the mix between effects over time and tailor your final file to match any accompanying media.

When ready, start recording and play around with your XY controls to print your own sound effect file. You can hit the Stop button once finished.

Step 3: Exporting your bird chirp sound effect

After your recording is complete, you can click and drag the file into your favourite video/audio editing software. Now you have your very own custom bird chirp sound effect!

There are also plenty of other presets that contain bird chirping sounds inside the premium version of Krotos Studio. Take a look at the Countryside preset below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v3OFPYAFcU

How does National Geographic source their bird chirping sounds?

Check out this National Geographic clip of the first bird species discovered to project its chirping sounds using its wings, rather than its voice. What an impressive little creature!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FHSQQMnOko

Unsurprisingly, professional documentaries don’t rely on birds song download packs from the internet. They capture their sounds live from the real world whilst filming through various field recording techniques.

Some professionals dedicate their entire careers to the art of field recording. Using specialised field recording equipment effectively is truly a skill to master.

Field recording equipment, plus the skills required to effectively capture high-grade field audio isn’t easy to acquire. That’s why a software like Krotos Studio is such a handy tool – saving those of us who’re more versed in the digital domain a lot of time and effort!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MumKLHZ_yRo

Can you replicate natural bird sounds through Foley recordings?

Foley recording is when we record sounds in a contained environment (usually a dedicated Foley recording studio) using various objects, with the intent of mimicking a desired real-world sound. For example, a Foley artist might flap a tea towel to mimic the sound of a bird’s wings.

Foley recordings can then be processed and placed as sound effects within our productions. Foley sound effects can be used independently, or layered with other sounds to enhance them (eg, combining a Foley impact with an on-screen punch to make a fight more dramatic).

Synthesising a bird tweet sound in a Foley studio would prove to be a difficult task, but it’s not entirely out of the question. Foley artists are some of the most creative individuals in the entire field of sound design – taking whatever measures necessary to replicate real-world sounds.

‍Krotos Studio aims to provide us, sound designers, with an all-in-one SFX suite– dedicating a whole subsection of presets to commonplace foley sounds. Check out Krotos Studio’s Foley credentials in this article for a deeper dive into that preset within the software.

Combining sounds with bird chirping to create immersive environments

Attempting to mimic a real-world environment’s presence through sound design can be a challenging task. It requires using your imagination to combine sounds that are likely to coexist in the real world.

Depending on whether you’re designing a cityscape or a naturally occurring wild scene, bird sounds can be combined with many other assets to cultivate a more realistic environment.

Traditionally, you’d have to layer sounds manually in your editing software to build your scene bit by bit. With Krotos Sounds added to your tool kit, you’ll be able to minimise the amount of manual labour and kick things off with a substantially fleshed-out starting point.

Commonplace sound assets like wind, insects, streams of water, and other animals are great to combine with bird sounds when building a natural scene, whereas traffic, people, dogs, and other domestic sounds are more fitting for a suburban scenery.

We have an article similar to this one exploring ambient sounds further here.

FAQ

What does it mean when a bird is constantly chirping?

Chirping is a form of communication between birds. Birds can chirp to signal many things to other birds, including announcing potential threats and dangers.

Interestingly, the reason we hear birds chirping most prominently in the mornings is because male birds are most active at this time and signal their presence to females, and to claim territory over other males.

What is the sound of birds chirping?

Humans have always found the sound of chirping birds to be melodious and song-like in nature – something that’s soothing and pleasant to the human ear. This is due to the balanced rhythmic patterns and pitch alterations present in bird vocalisation.

Bird vocalisation is surely one of Mother Nature’s very own musical instruments, providing a calming tranquillity to an otherwise hostile natural world.