Navigation of this identification guide
The song identification guide
is designed so you can jump right in.
Hopefully you already experienced this ease of use, but if you are reading this,
perhaps a more detailed description of how to navigate the guide will help.
The identification guide presents you with a series of choices on the qualities or attributes
of the sound you are trying to identify.
Some of the choices are quite objective (e.g., number of different notes in the sound), while
other choices may be more subjective: what
sounds harsh or unmusical to you may seem quite pleasant to me. Below I give some
working definitions of the terms commonly used in the guide.
At each point, pick the choice that most closely corresponds to the attributes
of the sound you are trying to identify. Each choice has a short description
of that sound attribute and a listing of the species which will be included if you pick
that choice. You can highlight a species in the select box, and press the 'Select bird'
button to display a link to the species' sound file and a description of the
sound you will hear.
As you continue through the guide, making choices
at each point, you will exclude more and more of the bird sounds.
You will finally arrive at a listing of species and descriptions of the sounds in the
sound file. All of these sounds share the attributes you chose,
and the guide does not break this group down further. The species name is a
link to the sound file described.
The attributes shared by the sounds and songs included are displayed at
the top of each page. This is also a navigational history which summarizes the
choices you have already made. You can use this history to backtrack to particular
choices, so you may try different ones. If you don't see what you expect, back up a
try a different choice (e.g. my 'high pitched' may correspond to your 'moderately pitched',
or what I think of has 'harsh' you may think of as 'melodic'). Do you disagree with my
classification of a certain sound? Let me know at the email address below.
I must add some qualifications about use of this guide. The sound you are trying to
identify may not exist among the selections, but the guide will allow you to find sounds
similar in some sense to the one you are trying to identify. Though you may know which bird
is singing, the sound presented here may bear no resemblance to what you are hearing.
Most species of birds make many different sounds, and there may be regional dialects.
Finally, some birds can mimic the sounds of others. It's always best to try to see who
is doing the singing!
Other references of great interest include:
I learn more from Kroodsma (2005) every time I read it.
I hope that this discussion will allow you to navigate the North American bird song and sound guide with relative ease. Let me know if that is not the case, and why.