Birding

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Sounds of Spring Presentation Recap

Wood ThrushWell, Thursday was our local bird club’s “Sounds of Spring” presentation (a name we gave it, not the official name) and a trio of us presented some bird sounds. Learning bird sounds is extremely difficult for some birders (besides those unable to physical hear high-pitched sounds) and amazingly easy for others to catch on. It would be great if there was a sure-fire, get-sounds-quick scheme to learn the unbelievable array of bird noises, but that is just not the case.

We will attempt to provide as many hints and tips here and greatly appreciate any advice from more experienced birders. But the basic solution to learn bird songs is the following:

Learn “common” bird sounds a few at a time and immerse yourself in repetition of any bird sound you wish to learn. Once some sounds are mastered, each time a new sound tickles your ears, spend the extra time to

While this concept is grossly simplified, it does work in most cases. It helps to isolate one bird sound at a time (something not always possible on a spring morning near the airport) and by all means, listen to bird sounds at home before hitting the trails. Memorizing 30+ warblers in one sitting is next to impossible but anyone can quickly learn a handful of them and build from there.

Singing Song SparrowWe recommend using and iPod and BirdJam software to practice and use in the field. You can import your bird sounds from the Stokes CDs (both eastern and western editions) and with BirdJam you can automatically create playlists and remove the voiceover of the bird’s names. This greatly improves the ability to self-quiz and the extra information BirdJam provides aides in learning the bird songs. You can still see the name of the bird as well as word cues describing what the bird is “saying”.

Read our full review of the BirdJam software

1 Comment or Trackback   ↓ Jump to add comment ↓

  1. Lana says:

    iPod? Software? Unfortunately I seem to be in the stone age, where some things are concerned! Love learning what they sound like, though!

    Posted on: April 13, 2009 @ 3:33 pm

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