The Sound Approach to Birding: A guide to understanding bird sound – web-book

This digitally enhanced version of The Sound Approach to Birding uses e-sonogram technology to showcase the contents of our award-winning first book.

Peter Grant and Killian Mullarney took bird identification to a new level with their seminal pamphlet The new approach to identification, first seen as a series of papers in Birding World, and then published privately in 1989. In it, they explained and summarised a terminology for plumage and age, moult, topography and other matters now considered fundamental in bird identification. Inspired by this I wrote The challenge of bird sounds for Birding World (Constantine 1994), and this guide is an expanded and illustrated development of the ideas presented in that paper. 

Since 2000 I have worked with Arnoud van den Berg and Magnus Robb (‘The Sound Approach’) on the ambitious undertaking of recording all the sounds of birds in the Western Palearctic; they, along with Dick Forsman and Killian, have travelled the world recording birds and noting age, sex and the circumstances in which the sounds were made. They have then challenged every thought and proved and disproved some of the theories that I have read. Many are taken from the superb Ecology and evolution of acoustic communication in birds edited by Donald Kroodsma & Edward Miller (1996). 

 

The recordings used in this guide are taken from the 30,000 or so amassed by The Sound Approach since 2000, and many were collected especially to illustrate this book. They were made with stereo microphones, and recorded digitally, without compression. Editing has been kept to a minimum and, unless stated otherwise, natural gaps between sounds are the same length as in the original recordings. Where necessary, recordings have been equalised to minimise distracting background sounds such as wind and traffic. Dates and locations are always noted, as are time of day and the age and sex of the birds, if known. Where ageing and sexing was difficult, the recordist has often worked with a second observer to make this possible. In quiet surroundings we have sometimes been able to use different microphones that create superb stereo imaging. We recommend that you use good quality headphones for the best listening experience.

The book is written in the first person although parts have been written by other members of The Sound Approach, particularly Magnus. The English names follow Dutch Birding guidelines (van den Berg 2006), as Arnoud is the editor, and despite these considerable contributions any mistakes and inconsistencies are my own. Originally, when working on the idea of a ‘sound approach’, I tried to simplify everything. I wanted to popularise the sound approach to birding and believed that drawing up and explaining a series of ‘rules’, to be applied consistently to all situations, would best achieve this. I have learnt that bird sound is gloriously varied and more astonishing than any plumage. With such a subject it was easy to go on and on reading, birding and recording and that is my excuse for having allowed many years to pass. Now it is time to try to provide the vocabulary and biological background needed to bridge the gap between bird sounds and the much better known visual aspect of birding.

Mark Constantine

Part 1: ‘I don’t do calls’

Part 2: Put it all together and what have you got?

Part 3: Bird recording in an acoustic slum

Part 4: ‘I bird with Bill Smith’

Part 5: Hamish taught me all he knows about bird sounds

Part 6: Sex, seduction and jumping the neighbour’s wife

Part 7: Magnus Robb and ‘The Blackcaps’

Part 8: Twitching and taxonomy

Part 9: Playback and be dammed

Part 10: The sound approach to birding

References

The Sound Approach are Arnoud B van den Berg, Mark Constantine and Magnus Robb. They would like to thank Per Alström, Graham Armstrong, Ewan Brodie, Martin Cade, Paul Duck, Pim Edelaar, Robert Gifford, George Green, Neil Hagger, Roger Howell, Jackie Hull, Nick Hull, Hannu ‘Honey’ Jännes, Lars Jonsson, Ian Lewis, James Lidster, Anthony McGeehan, Bruce Mactavish, Urban Olsson, John Raper, Shaun Robson, Steve Smith, Nigel Symes, Ian Wallace, Pim Wolf and Hugo Wood-Homer; Richard Ranft, the curator at the British Library of Wildlife Sounds, who took time to correct technical and biological aspects of the original paper; Paul Holt and Bill Jackson who shared their considerable knowledge of bird sounds and enthusiasm for recording; all at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, especially Greg Budney, the curator of the Macaulay Library (formerly Library of Natural Sounds), and WSB contenders ‘The Sapsuckers’, old and new; the editors of Birding World; the directors and customers of Limosa Holidays and Sunbird for their kindness, understanding and help; the wonderful Cecilia Bosman who, despite being put to the test by the team’s behaviour, has kept an eye on everything from documenting the data through to the concept, design, and the details of the sonagrams; Killian Mullarney, who has been a true friend, made great recordings of mega rare birds, argued and illustrated the theories, refereed disputes, and corrected the grammar; Dick Forsman who, despite losing his car to Mark in a rash bet, helped find and record many birds; René Pop who, when not snoring, was an unsung hero; Mo Constantine and Ilse Schrama for calming heated situations and everlasting support; Birgit Schrama who stepped in at the last moment and helped with the organisation, the layout and design and saw the book through to the printers; family Constantine and family Haas for moral and technical support; and Nick Hopper for help with sonagram production and giving a birders’ perspective.

The research by Mientje Petrus for the digital version was invaluable. Thanks are also due for the support by many other persons and it is impossible to mention all of them. They include Hichem Azafzaf, Craig Benkman, Daniel Bergmann, Jacek Betleja, David Bigas, Marek Borkowski, Han Buckx, Richard Crossley, Giorgi Darchiasvili, Andrei Gavrilov, Ramaz Gokhelashvili, Gunnar Thor Hallgrimsson, Bernd Heinrich, Mark Herremans, Timur Iskakov, Yann Kolbeinsson, Andrej Koshin, Diana Krautter, Antero Lindholm, Erik Maassen, Eduardo Mínguez, Colm Moore, Manela Nunes, Daniele Occhiato, Ernesto Occhiato, Gerald Oreel, Pekka Pouttu, Vladimir Pozdnyakov, George Sangster, Roy Slaterus, Yuri Sofronov, Klas Strandberg, Ron Summers, António Teixeira, Thor Veen and Dick Woets.

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