Recording Pelagic Bird Calls

[Subramanian Sankar <>]

Hi

I am part of a Pelagic Birdwatching Group in South India.

The southern part of Indian peninsula is hemmed between Bay of Bengal on one side, Arabian Sea in the other and Indian Ocean at the bottom.

Over the course of last 5 years regular expeditions into the sea have given us good data on the incidence of pelagic birds. Most of the birds migrate from Southern Hemisphere where they breed and winter in the oceans mentioned. Some of the species seen are Shearwaters, Skuas, Petrels, Jaegers and Terns

More work needs to be done to understand their behaviour.

I am particularly interested in recording the bird calls. Anyone who has some experience in this may suggest techniques and equipment to record bird calls from a moving boat in high seas.

Birds often fly by, over fly, or sit in water quietly as we recently encountered a flock of nearly 300 Flesh-footed Shearwaters as our boat anchored nearby  

Recent video recordings from our outings can be seen from the following links which are edited for slow motion. However there are no audio recordings of bird calls.

https://youtu.be/6tbnEQcUIzM

https://youtu.be/zdJJrbBG8WM

Cheers

Subramanian Sankar
Chennai, aka Madras, South India
+919840111606 (Hand phone)