Using Tape Recorders & iPods to Listen to Bird Songs

Video Transcript

"Welcome to Expert Village. My name is Wayne Petersen and I direct the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Important Bird Areas Program for Massachusetts. Today, we're here at the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield, Massachusetts. And, we're going to be talking about the equipment needed to get one started in birding. Another piece of technology that can be dutifully applied to your interest in birds and birdwatching, is the tape recorder. And, the tape recorder can be something specifically of this sort which is now somewhat dated in that it's using cassettes, but it is and was at one time, a very practical way of not only playing tapes, preexisting recorded tapes of birds, but also with a microphone, a hand held microphone, actually taping bird songs. But, I think today, increasingly people are going to the more compact iPod type devices where it's possible to download bird songs from either the internet or various commercially available sources, and put them on very small hand units that can be used sometimes with simply an ear plug to listen to songs to help you remember what they are, to recognize them. Or in some cases, if they are properly used, it's possible to play a recording of a song of a bird. And, sometimes the bird will be drawn to the recorder and give you a look at it. A caveat to this is that remember that birds respond to their own songs or songs of their species oftentimes in a territorial way. And it's important not to be disruptive or to overuse this approach to the use of tapes and tape sounds. But, in general, I would say that a small recorder or an iPod device that allows you to have a selection of bird songs can be very useful as a way to help you remember songs and also in some cases to get better looks a birds that may be otherwise rather shy and retiring."