Effects of call playback on birds

["Douglas Carver" <>]

I have taken courses with two different ornithologists at the Smithsonian Institution.  Both cautioned against using playbacks, except in rare instances, and even then using them sparingly (one had a rule of thumb that if the bird did not appear after the second playing of the call or song, he would not try a third time).  While neither had hard empirical data (or at least, no data they shared with the class), they both said that a bird responding to a call is expending energy needlessly, which puts unnecessary stress on the bird.  The bird's well-being is more important than our twitch.

Cheers,

Douglas Carver
Albuquerque, NM 
USA

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 5:43 PM, Andrew Taylor <> wrote:

There are many publications involving playback but almost all are using
it as a tool to gain insight into bird ecology or behaviour.  Some of
this research indicates possible impacts from birders using playback
but at least what I've seen doesn't help much in judging the scale of
the impact.  Google did turn up this discussion involving some
knowledgable people:
http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~smithsm/Impact%20of%20Playback%20on%20Birds.pdf

Andrew

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