The singing of birds has been the subject of human song since earliest times. They have always been our companions in garden and field, and the effortless elaborate power of the sound emanating from such a tiny creature has drawn our imagination. We like to imagine that birds sing the way we do, expressing joy, grief, tenderness, or even greed in the case of Ivor R Davies’ raven; but in fact not only are the mechanics of their song different - they produce sound with a stretched membrane, the syrinx - but the reasons for their song are also not apparently aligned with ours - most of their song serves to mark territory or attract a mate. So when we put the voice of love or despair into the beaks of our feathered friends, it is purely a reflection of ourselves. Here then is a brief survey of the ‘throes’ of the human heart - as Robert Bridges’ nightingales describe them - heard by human ears in the voices of birds.