Learning how to transcribe English sounds is a very useful skill. It helps us "write" how sounds are pronounced when we are, for example, editing a paper on some linguistic issue. English transcription can be done from two different perspectives:
a) We can transcribe broadly, meaning that we merely state how sounds are pronounced phonologically. Phonologically refers to the general pronunciation of sounds, common to all varieties of one standard and without taking into account possible influences across sounds. This is a Phonological Transcription (Phonemic Transcription). The sounds we transcribed are called "phonemes". /b/ is a symbol which refers to the main articulatory traces of the first sound in "birthday": bilabial, plosive, voiced.
b) We can transcribe narrowly, meaning that we include much more details occurring to sounds, such as influence from neighboring sounds, from their position in the utterance, etc. This is called Phonetic Transcription (Allophonic Transcription). The sounds we transcribed are called "allophones" and are closer to the real pronunciation by a human. This closeness is, of course, gradual, as we may ignore some aspects of pronunciation. [b^] is a symbol which refers to the specific articulatory traces of the sound /b/ when it is pronounced in final position and the release stage of the plosive feature is not happening.
Have a look at this video to review these phonetic symbols and how they sound:
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