Sort of related - bird call ID apps

[David Rees <>]

Interesting, as someone who does a lot of bird sound recording when filming and in addition to filming I find that without a fully wind muffed microphone, most of the time what you will record will be crap.   Getting good audio is sometimes harder than the filming.  The microphones on all mobile phones, regardless of price, are not wind protected, similar to on-camera mics outdoors, mostly useless.  Software can help with a low cut filter but there are limits. You can however plug a properly protected mic into a mobile phone (though Apple are making it harder with their 'playing with ports' game), this would allow the app to get a 'clean feed' in anything other than dead still conditions.  Wonder how it will cope with mimics, such as the lyrebirds!.

David

On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 9:00 PM, David McDonald (personal) <> wrote:

There are a number of Shazam-type apps for identifying bird calls using a smart phone for the USA and other regons, and they are now appearing for Oz birds as well.

See Bird Song Id Australia - Automatic Recognition https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/bird-song-id-australia-automatic-recognition/id1079325343?mt=8
quote, my emphasis:
Identify birds of Australia by their Songs and Calls with this stunning guide!
Record a bird singing and use Automatic Recognition to help identify it. Includes high quality images and audio. No internet connection is needed!

With Bird Song Id, identification can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Test your knowledge with our Bird Song Quiz, see if you can become the highest scorer!

Bird Song Id has been created by professional published ecologists, and uses propriety image and audio libraries. Bird Song Id can also be used to keep a log of your own bird recordings.

This app includes 110 bird species and over 200 songs and calls. All the most common garden birds are included.
unquote

The mention of 'No internet connection is needed' tells us that the app is large - it has to store the audio files on your phone. Yes, 261 MB, but that is only half the size of the Frog ID app and a third the size of PK Birds.

David
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On 10/11/2017 9:04 AM, Martin Butterfield wrote:

I and a few others have occasionally wondered why there isn't a bird call identification app along the lines of Shazam.  The reasons given all seem to be along the lines of "Its too difficult to do every bird call so we'll do none."' Which is not particularly helpful!

As a small step along the way the Australian Museum has launched what could be called Shazam for Frogs.

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/