Learning bird songs

This is a great point. If you think of instruments in an orchestra or symphony, the birds fit into different sound groupings much like strings, brass, reeds, woodwinds, etc. Corvids, warblers, thrushes, vireo, flycatchers, sparrows etc each as their own group have a sound that usually distinguishes them from other groups. And similarly within those groupings they have different sounds - violin, viola, cello - different species such as in corvids have sounds that are limited by their morphology. One might listen and recognize a vireo type sound and then just have those to compare amongst. Of course then there are the MIDI keyboards like mockingbirds that confuse but then even that is a limited set.

Also donā€™t forget to apply Occamā€™s razor https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Occamā€™s%20razor#:~:text=%3A%20a%20scientific%20and%20philosophical%20rule,in%20terms%20of%20known%20quantities

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I know some - blue jay, cardinal, robin, even their various songs. Catbird, mostly because they DO go on at length. I discovered BirdNET recently, and it helps a lot. However, I have to play the video on one device while BirdNET listens on another. Wish there were a direct way to transfer. When Iā€™ve used song collections, they often didnā€™t have a song like the one I heard. I assume that is because of regional dialects, or because some birds have more songs than the sample offers.

For sure!

Iā€™m a pretty decent eye-birder for northeastern US because I grew up with a field guide and binoculars on the dining room table - now that I think about that, it was obviously something my parents taught me. But many birds in this wooded part of the country donā€™t show themselves. I am also disabled, so hiking with a bird group is not possible. The Ring cameras are a revelation. They can even be set up sound-triggered, and they record automatically.

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Wonderful thread! Thank you, all!

I found that I have to play back the sound on one device while having BirdNET listen to it on another. Perhaps I havenā€™t looked hard enough?

I definitely recognize the ones I know best by timbre.

I prefer the iNaturalist web access to the app for almost everything,

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You bet. Apple doesnā€™t think mere mortals need to know where their files are stored. One of the few things I hate about iPhone and iPad.

Never thought of it that way. Useful. Thanks.

Catbirds are great mimics, too. Not the ā€œmewā€ call, but long songs with many variations.

What are Ring cameras? Iā€™ve seen the term but donā€™t know what they are.

As it goes, iNat has not designed the web app to be successful on iOS mobile devices . The web version is very buggy for uploading when accessed from an iPhone or iPad.

So, since my files are stored on my phone, it works better to start obs with uploaded photos using the iPhone app. Then add the sound files as needed on the web ā€” but thatā€™s buggy and fails a lot , too.

Ring is the most common brand of security cameras.

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Iā€™ve had some success by recording songs that I donā€™t know in the field & researching them later at home. The process of trying to find them seems to help with having it ā€œstickā€ better in my memory for some reason. Also, there is an awesome library of recordings at the following site;

https://drc.ohiolink.edu/

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You can use xeno-canto too, with not ideal, but useful maps and ssp. ranges!

I have Ring cameras on 3 sides of my house. Theyā€™re not only getting lots of video of birds and mammals, but also hearing and recording birdsong. Sometimes Iā€™m getting video of birds singing while I can see them doing it, particularly Carolina wren, catbird and song sparrow. Whether I see them or not, I can play back the video for BirdNET or Merlin, if I donā€™t see the bird, and begin to learn the songs. I already caught a catbird singing what Merlin IDs as brown thrasher, as well as another with a more typical catbird song. And lots of calls that are not songs. I had no idea Carolina wrens sing several different songs, as well as making various calls. So Iā€™m making my own study tapes.

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Catbirds, thrashers, and mockingbirds mimic quite a bit. theyā€™ll even mimic each other. Generally, mockingbirds repeats the copied song 3 times, thrashers 2 times, and catbirds just once. Without the repeats, catbird song often sounds like a confused mash of every bird at once.

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