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Connect with fellow sound recordists, and share your memories and experiences on learning to record bird sounds.You must be enrolled in the course to reply to this topic.
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I really liked this course, simple in explanation and very understandable for me who is just going to start recording bird songs. For the moment I will start recording with my cell phone and later it will be with a specialized team in order to be able to contribute who knows with some investigation.
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I have used acoustic methods for bird surveys in Nepal and they are relatively new in our country. This course is the best to learn about bird acoustics online and was very fruitful. -
Hello, thank you very much for this course, I learned new things and I anxious to go field and put it into practice. I am from Colombia and I started to record birds since about 10 years ago because of my bad memory, so to record help me to remember, also I like to contribute with recordings of birds in my country because we still have very few recordings. I am proud about some of my recordings were useful for Mort Isler and collaborators research, including Andres Cuervo who taught me how to upload recordings on eBird and the importance of do it, even if they are low quality recordings as those mine of Rufous Antpitta (which I recorded with a journalist recorder) just like this course teach to us. Also, I like to explore eBird regions to see priorities sites and species to record, so I discovered there were very common species like Rock Pigeon without recordings on eBird from my country or region! I think this happen to all f us, so we are focus on rare or endangered species and sometimes we forget the commons ones. To people who want to come to Colombia to birding-recording are very welcome, specially at Boyacá department where I live.
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Last almost 25 years I have been recording sounds. Many bird species gives one or other types of call while feeding. Commonly winter visitor warblers, tailor birds, and bulbul. Is it for claiming right over the feeding ground or to keep in touch with a partner?
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Thank you for a great course! Using ocenaudio for processing, when saving the .wav file, I am presented with choices: 1) Audio Format: defaults to "Linear PCM" 2) Resolution: defaults to "16 bits" 3) Dithering: defaults to "Rectangular PDF". Are these defaults suitable, or is it better to change. If you've used the current version of Ocenaudio, I presume you are familiar with the other non-default options. Thanks!
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Random tip (maybe others have tried this): If you use a Zoom F3 recorder, buy some generic velcro straps, thread one through the belt loop on the recorder, and strap the recorder to your wrist. This makes it easy to reach the record switch and see the display by viewing the recorder like a wristwatch. I use mine like this all the time.
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Do I need to use a dedicated recorder or can I just use Merlin Bird ID as my recorder (and connect the mic to my cell phone)?
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You can use the Merlin app to record.
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Can you connect an XLR connection mic to a cellphone to record on Merlin?
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Yes, you can. You will need an adapter to do so. What kind of phone do you have?
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@James Sweet! I have an Android with a USB-C plug, no 3.5mm/TRRS/TRS.
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@Daniel Koehn You will need a USB-C to XLR adapter or converter cable to connect a microphone such as an ME66 to your phone. A quick search on amazon shows that they are readily available. I don't use a phone to record anymore, as I now have a dedicated recorder. But if you want to get an idea of what you can do with this microphone connected to a smartphone, take a listen to this recording I made of a Herring Gull with the ME66 connected to an iPhone. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/313566841
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@James Awesome, thank you very much. I think Merlin on my phone records in 32-bit, which is excellent. Nice recording!
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Nice course. I have been recording and contributing bird sounds for a few years now, but still learned a good deal.
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I want to get a shotgun microphone on a budget. Does anyone know of any models/brands that offer a high quality microphone at a decent price? Can you say the same for recorders? Thanks!
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You can pick up a used Sennheiser ME66 + k6 powering module on eBay or Reverb for under $200. These are robust German made (discontinued) mics that last a long time.. Then you just need a pistol grip, XLR cable and “dead cat”. Rycote and Rode are good brands, and you might find them used as well. As for a recorder, get one with 32-bit float recording capability. Zoom makes some good budget friendly options.
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@Anthony Hi Anthony, Thanks for the help! I will be sure to check those out.
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I want to second Anthony's recommendation of seeking out a Sennheiser ME66 with K6 power supply. They are great microphones. I take mine down to the shore, and I was out with it today and got some great gull sounds.
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@James Thank you! Do you find that the 66 is long enough for sufficient directionality?
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@Daniel Koehn I think that it is quite serviceable. I also have a parabolic microphone, which of course is more directional. You could also try to seek out an ME67, which is a full-length shotgun, if you want to improve the directionality. For reference, here is a recording of a Carolina Wren that I made with the ME66. The bird was not visible, as it was high in a tall tree with foliage. I was about 20 feet away from the tree and pointing up, with the total distance from microphone to the bird about 65-70 feet. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/257195791
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@James I have tried to find the ME67 on eBay, but there are very few to none available. The 67 would be prefered, however I will likely go for the 66 as it is readily available and has a good price used. Thanks again for all the help, James!
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@James I have been using this last many years. It works nicely and is robust. I bought Reverb one.
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Hi Daniel: If you look at the directivity graphs for the ME-66 and 67, you'll find the graphs are quite similar so you likely won't lose much angular focus when using the ME-66. I have a 66 plus a parabola, using them for different environments and subjects. You also asked about recorders. Cornell folks have tested several and occasionally put our a list of their favorites. For a few years, the Sound Designs MixPre-3 was their top choice; I bought one prior to doing Cornell's Sound Recording Workshop. Version II has 32 bit recording and is quite pricey. A recent Cornell webinar suggested the Zoom F3 is a great choice; smaller & much cheaper. Has an XLR input. I bought one after the webinar and am pleased; found one in nearly new condition on eBay for about $250. There are 3 in very good shape on eBay right now under $300 plus lots of new ones for full retail. Bob
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@Bob Bob. Thank you for sharing your experience with the ME66 and 67. Yes, I have seen the Zoom F3, and will likely go with that at some point,. However, for now, I will probably start with connecting an ME-66 to my cell phone and Merlin Bird ID, to keep the cost down. Thanks again! Daniel
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Has anyone used the "line out" from a Zoom F3 to Merlin (to see real time spectrograms)? Does the Zoom still record? If not, I assume the iPhone's limitations would override some of the benefits of the Zoom (eg, no 32-bit float). Correct?
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Hi David: Yes, I've used. Helpful for spectrograms and for doing species ID in Merlin while recording on the F3; just need to juggle the cable lengths. I'm on an Android phone, Samsung S23, which doesn't have regular 3.5mm jack. I bought a small dongle with mic input using 3.5mm and connection to phone using the small USB jack. Works great especially with my parabola. Bob
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HI David: To add to my reply, probably better to use the F3 headphone output into the phone dongle. You can easily find a 3.5mm Y adapter that allows to listen on your headphones at the same time you are looking at Merlin on your phone. I do it often. Bob
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I'm recording using a Rode NTG2 mic and Zoom F3, which records in 32 bit float. Any advice on how much gain to use? I know it's meant to be set-it-and-forget-it. Does it make any difference? Options are "x1" and powers of 2 from x2 to x1024. I experimented a little when I first got it, and as I recall didn't see any difference in the recordings once normalized. On an unrelated note, at times there are a few cases where the shotgun mic almost seems to be disadvantageous, when I am in a relatively quiet setting with the bird moderately close at roughly my level. The shotgun mic seems to pick up hundreds of meters worth of rustling leaves, distant birds, a distant road, etc., that I do not hear without the mic. On the other hand, a mic pointed up toward a bird with only sky beyond works great.
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Hi David: I like to have a reasonably normalized sound level coming into my earbuds or headphones. I assess the amplitude levels of the desired birds before recording then adjust the x1 to x1024 gain to have desired level to my ears and have reasonable levels on the F3 spectrogram. Yep, shotguns are great for recording the birds in their ambient environment; does capture lots of background sounds. For a reasonable price, you could get the small Wildtronics parabola. I use the regular sized one. Bob
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I am writing to express my sincere gratitude for the invaluable experience and knowledge gained during the "How to Record Bird Sounds" course at Bird Academy, Cornell University. This course has been a remarkable journey, providing me with a profound understanding of various aspects related to recording bird sounds. The comprehensive coverage of instruments used in bird sound recording has been particularly enlightening. The depth of knowledge imparted has equipped me with a solid foundation, allowing me to grasp the intricacies of recording techniques with confidence. The hands-on experience gained through the course, especially in using ocenaudio for sound editing, has been instrumental in enhancing my practical skills in the field. One of the highlights of the course has been the exploration of the diverse languages of birds. Understanding and appreciating the nuances of avian communication have sparked a deep interest in me. As a current student pursuing a postgraduate degree in Zoology with a specialization in Wildlife and Conservation Biology at Calcutta University, this newfound fascination has inspired me to consider bird acoustic research and behavior as a focal point for my future endeavors. The insights gained from the "How to Record Bird Sounds" course have not only broadened my knowledge but have also ignited a passion for delving into the intricate world of bird acoustics. I am excited about the prospect of contributing to the field of wildlife and conservation biology through a deeper understanding of avian communication and behavior. I would like to extend my gratitude to the dedicated instructors at Cornell University for their guidance and expertise throughout the course. The skills and knowledge acquired will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in shaping my academic and professional journey. Thank you once again for providing this enriching opportunity, and I look forward to applying the skills and insights gained during the course to make meaningful contributions to the field.
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Although I've been recording bird songs and calls for many years, I picked up many useful tips from the course. Thank you to the instructors and the Bird Academy! For anyone having trouble identifying a sound in your recordings, I suggest asking experienced birders in your area to listen to your recording and give you their opinions on the unknowns. I think you will find them very happy to help. I still ask others for help on a regular basis and I have a standing offer to anyone in our birding community to try to help them with an unknown in a recording. I also learn a good deal from these interactions. This sharing of expertise helps build a community of keen bird-listeners. Photographers have been doing this for years. Here in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, we have a small group of us that go on bird-listening field trips together specifically to enjoy, and often record, bird sounds. My go-to editting software is RavenLite, free software from Cornell. My primary frustration with using RavenLite is that I haven't figured a way to save my view settings (time scale, frequency range) between recordings.This would be very useful when comparing a series of recordings. Right now I'm taking a close look at Canada Jay vocalizations from across its range in North America and standardizing time/frequency display settings between recordings would be wonderful. I was surprised to not to see RavenLite software as one of the software options and wonder why. I've downloaded Ocenaudio and will give it a try. The lessons certainly illustrated how user-friendly it is! I've seen a few bits of field equipment in the videos that I'd like more details on. A suggestion for the course would be to include some form of appendix that gives the specifics (brand name, model name) of the equipment shown. Creating personal library of bird sounds is a source of joy and has allowed me to repeatedly relive special moments in nature while also sharing these experiences with others via eBird. Good luck and happy bird-listening to all. John
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I have improved my recordings a lot, since I now have decent equipment. Before I used my camera to record and pass on mp3 format (something terrifying). I have been looking for a shock mount for a RØDE NTG2, could you help me find it please?
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With my NTG2 I use a Rode SM3-R Rycote Lyre shock mount with a camera shoe. This lets me mount it to my camera or to a separate pistol grip. I've misplaced the grip and now usually use the mount by itself, which seems to work fine and is more portable when I am multi-tasking. Some handling sound will still transfer in any case, so holding still still matters. When mounted to the camera with my 150-600mm lens the weight not ideal for longer recordings. Also the cable can interfere with using the viewfinder, as I prefer. But a cable with a right-angled connection at the mic solves that issue, as shown below.
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@David Thanks David!
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I recently completed the bird recording course and picked up the Rode VideoMic Go 2, and for the price, I can highly recommend it. Here is a link to a Song Sparrow singing. https://vimeo.com/805143217 shot with the Nikon Z9 with the mic attached to the hot shoe. Also attached is a link to some other videos of mine. https://robertdavidatkinson.com/video/avian-4k-footage/
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Hi everybody. Just introducing myself. I'm Rob, an engineer (civil, not sound!) based in the UK. My interest is wildlife sound recording; not just birds, although birds feature prominently in most of my recordings. I'm more interested in soundscapes than individual species. I like to keep things simple so my usual set-up is a Sony PCM-A10, power bank (10,000mAh) and some LOM MikroUsi's. I have a couple of them that I leave out for unattended recording up to 72hrs. I also have a couple of PCM-D100s that I mainly use for run-and-gun recordings or unattended up to 24hrs. In the SE of England we are plagued with noise, so I like to travel with my gear (most recently Madagascar and Ecuador). Costa Rica next. Looking forward to the course. Regards, Rob
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Enjoyed Recording Bird Sounds class, and realize now how many avenues one can pursue related to listening to and recording bird sounds. I am more of a Merlin-in-my-pocket birder, growing in my appreciation of sounds and as mentioned again right at the end, how bird vocalizations are intertwined with avian behavior more generally. A discussion board is welcome!
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Has anybody been able to get the Rode Video Mic GO (pictured in the course) to work with Android using USB-C? https://www.amazon.com/Rode-Lightweight-Microphone-Integrated-Shockmount/dp/B00GQDORA4 According to this link for RODE... https://rode.com/en/about/news-info/The-Ultimate-RODE-Cable-and-Adaptor-Guide ...you need a TRS to TRRS adaptor in addition to the USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor. I have this set up with Google Pixel 5 phone but it still wont recognize the Mic.
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I have a Zoom F1 recorder with Audio Technica ATR6550 shotgun mic. I always have to keep my gain at "Hi ++", even when the focal bird is quite close to me. If I go on the lower levels of gain or stand at a considerable distance from the subject, the recording becomes almost unusable due to the noise. How do I fix this issue, Please help!
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Any thoughts on the ethics of recordings that contain human voices in the background? Sometimes when I'm recording in or near town - eg along the river, which has walkways nearby - I end up with human voices in the background. I'm pretty uncomfortable using those parts of the recording, even if it's impossible to make out what's being said or it's just someone calling their dog in the distance. So I can end up throwing away long sections of otherwise good bird song, to avoid the snippets of human voice here and there within it. I think the answer is to go recording somewhere with no people around where possible...other human sounds are undesirable too! But this must be a common problem, so curious to know what other recordists do here.
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I believe a high pass filter would do fine for higher frequency vocals. For the lower frequency calls/songs, I am not sure how to do that.
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@Vyom Hi Vyom, For archival purposes, trying to use filters to eliminate human voices could negatively impact the birds audible in a recording, so we don't recommend that. Matt
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@Matthew D. Do you also not recommend trying to remove the noise using audio software?
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Hi Christopher, This is an interesting consideration, and something that I'd never contemplated before. I personally don't like when I have human voices in my recordings because I feel like it mars the quality of the recording. Do you have specific ethical concerns? With photography, I would not want to archive a bird photo with a person's face in the photo, for privacy reasons, so perhaps you're thinking of something along those lines? Matt
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If it's impossible / hard to make out what people where saying, or even if it was crystal clear, I wouldn't mind uploading the recording. I'd only cut out those sections if I considered what's being said as offensive or inappropriate.
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In a perfect world maybe I'd exclude us(humans) from recordings most of the time, but it's not. I think it's best to have some tolerance for other things and people. If you can find a place or time without human sounds, great. I'm just starting but I have a recording with a mild level of people talking in the background. In this case it seemed to me to scarcely take away from the bird vocalizing. The wind did a better job at that. Another recording of mine(taken in the early morning) has no talking but a cacauphany(misspelled) of bird sound crowding the intended focal bird. It was still a good recording.
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Hi to everybody, I have a Sony alpha camera to film and record bird songs. Sony sells shotgun microphones, but I don’t know which one to select…Does anybody have experience with Sony gear? Please your help and advice…thank you in advance!!!
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Hello to whoever may read this! I want to upgrade my recording gear (from a Zoom H2N, no external mic, no windscreen!). Since taking this class, I've been poring through different options. I want to keep it all below $1000 - which is actually a scary stretch for me, but I can't see how to get a significant upgrade for less than that. Right now I'm looking into a Zoom F3 recorder, and have some questions for anyone who has experience with it. I'm technically quite unsavvy, and the only editing I do, with Ocenaudio, is to trim my recordings and normalize them to -3db as we were taught to do in this course. 2 questions: 1) Does Ocenaudio read 32-bit float files (I use Windows 7 if that matters), and if not, what processing program does? And 2) Does processing 32-bit float files differ from processing 24-bit, and if so, in what ways? My final question is if anyone has recommendations for a mic that would be good to use with the F3. After lots of research, I'm thinking that the Rode NTG5 might be a good option - or a used Sennheiser ME66 if I can find one. Any thoughts? Thanks! Liza
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I don't have any experience with the Rode NTG-5, but from researching shotgun mics recently, it seems like a pretty good mic. It holds it's own vs the NTG-3 and Sennheiser MKH416. Its an RF-bias technology mic, so it should deal with damp weather better too than DC biased mics. Once you factor in the price and that the set includes a shock mount and a windshield , it looks like great value to me. Having said that, none of the reviews I've read focus on bird recording, so I'd love to hear if anyone here has experience with it. In any case, coming from a H2n with no external mic and windscreen, you're looking at a big upgrade. I have no experience with Ocenaudio, but since it's free, you can just give it a go. -Jan
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I have a Zoom F3 recorder($349.99) and Sennheiser MKE 600($329.95) external shotgun mike. When you look up "not tech savy" in the dictionary it says see me. I am brand new at this but have figured it out with my Windows 10 computer and Ocenaudio. The mike came with a small shock mount. I did not purchase an $89 plastic bag for it. The headphones are Sony MDR-7506($80.99). I got a Auray 5.5" windshield($84.95), Kopul studio elite 4000 series M to F 3 foot XLR cable($17.99), micro SDHC memory card with SD adapter($9.99). Shipping was free. This all added up to $939.40. One thousand was also my budget. The recorder has belt loops, is small and user friendly enough, and I don't plan to use it in much rain or snow. B&H of NYC was the source. The videochat I had with one of their professionals was very helpful.
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I have a Tascam DR-100mkIII recorder which I just started with last spring. I am interested in uploading songs onto the Macauley library and onto the Xeno-Cato library. My question is what is the difference between the WAVE and mp3 formats? Macauley prefers the WAVE and Xeno-cato prefers the mp3. Should I be recording bird songs in one prefernce over the other? Any comments would be appreciated. Mark Ports
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As I understand it, .WAV format is lossless, whereas MP3 does lead to a loss of data. Cornell recommend recording in .WAV format for this reason.
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If you record in WAV, you can still export it to mp3 after you process it if desired (the software you use to process it should let you export to various formats). So record in WAV, since it's lossless, and then after processing you can export it as a WAV file for upload to Macauley, and as an mp3 for upload to Xeno-Cato
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Hi! I also have a Tascam DR100MKIII but during the course I am wondering if I have the coorect configuration. I gto lost along the menus. In the end, I so not get a good record, they sounf faint, even if the bird is quite close (I do not think I can get closer). So I am starting to doubt If I have the recorder correctly configurated. I use the NTG-5 as microphone.
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@Elena Hi Elena, Sorry to hear that you're having frustrating results when you feel like you're making a good recording. I know I've definitely been there before! Could you share the settings that you're using? Or perhaps ask a few questions about specific settings where you have doubts? -Matt
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I know this is a year later, but xeno-canto now accepts .wav files, and then they do the conversion to .mp3. Sorry if you already knew that.
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I have used acoustic methods for bird surveys in Nepal and they are relatively new in our country. This course is the best to learn about bird acoustics online and was very fruitful. 
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