The Sound Approach to birding : a guide to understanding bird sound /
Mark Constantine & The Sound Approach
- Poole : The Sound Approach, 2013
- 192 p. : col. ill. ; 21x29 cm + 2 sound discs (digital ; 4 3/4 in.)
Accompanying material: 2 audio compact discs inside front cover.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Part 1. 'I don't do calls' -- Crossing the sound barrier -- Tone and timbre - Pitch and frequency -- Rhythm and timing -- Part 2. Put it all together and what have you got? -- Simple calls -- Simple song -- 'Curlews' and proportions in the sonagram -- Kite and pipit calls illustrate modulation -- Broadband and Trumpeter Finches -- Shapes and Yellow-browed comparisons -- M shapes of Common Ringed and Semipalmated -- Separating stonechats by inflection -- Rattles of Red-breasted Flycatchers -- Gull long calls -- Loudness and intensity -- Comparing woodpecker drums by oscillogram -- Baillon's Crakes' emotions -- The power of a Thrush Nightingale -- Part 3. Bird recording in an acoustic slum -- Acoustics and why bird recordings can sound different from real birds -- Degradation and Blackbird songs -- Woodcock roding and mics -- Forget the bird, listen to the scenery -- How birds adapt to acoustics -- Part 4. 'I bird with Bill Smith' -- No bird has just one call or one song -- Cracking the code -- Parallel lines -- Different species can share very similar sounds -- Lost for words? -- Part 5. Hamish taught me all he knows about bird sounds -- Ageing bird sounds - The egg -- Call development -- Learning to sing -- Subsong -- Plastic song -- Part 6. Sex, seduction and jumping the neighbour's wife -- Sexing sounds, and strategies for mates and rivals -- Ultra-crystallised songs -- Song matching: how birds cheat to avoid bringing up another bird's young -- Part 7. Magnus Robb and 'The Blackcaps' -- Mimicry, hybridisation, mixed singers and dialect -- Mixed singers and hybridisation -- Dialect -- Part 8. Twitching and taxonomy -- How sounds define species and their importance in conservation -- Conservation -- Redefining relationships by sound -- Booted and Sykes's Warbler's calls -- Crossbills and The origin of species -- Part 9. Playback and be damned -- Interacting with birds: imitating, whistling and spishing -- Give a little whistle -- Part 10. The Sound Approach to birding.
The Sound Approach to Birding Learn the facts of bird sound while listening to over 200 beautiful exclusive stereo recordings from all over the world. Combining anecdote, scientific theory and practical field experience, The Sound Approach to Birding is a step-by-step guide through tone, pitch, rhythm, reading sonograms, acoustics, and using sounds to age and sex birds. It explains how bird sounds are often the first indication of previously unrecognized taxonomic splits, and explains how to identify them. With The Sound Approach, you can maximize the use of sound in enhancing your field skills, and improve your standards of identification, whatever the level of your experience.
BTO and British Birds Bird Book of the Year, 2006 Birdwatch Bird Book of the Year, 2006