Posted by: "c5nest"
> I am fairly new to nature recording and could use some advice. I am
trying to record the sounds of the hummingbird battles around my
feeders. In the morning and at dusk, the traffic is quite heavy and
there are often four-way hummingbird collisions.
>
> I am recording to minidisc (Sony MZ-RH1) and have a Sennheiser
ME67+K6 mic.
>
> Perhaps a shotgun mic is not appropriate for this project: although
the high-pitched chittering records clearly, the low-pitched wing-buzz
sounds seem to get lost in the background noise.
>
> Should I be using a less directional mic mounted near the feeders?
This somewhat centers on what sort of site you have? If there are lots
of unwanted sound sources in the area you are probably going to want to
stick with directional. And be as close as possible.
Also are you trying to just record sounds near the feeder, or the
battles in the air in a much bigger volume? And follow a single bird, or
the whole group?
If your site is fairly quiet (other than the hummingbirds) then a
widefield ambient mic might give interesting results. It would have to
be mounted far enough away from the feeders to cover the flight paths
you want to record as well. Hummingbirds can cover a lot of ground when
in battles with each other. I'd love to try my SASS at this. Probably
mounting it on a high tripod to get more of the flight sounds. (17' in
the air)
A shotgun mic is not very directional compared to a parabolic and it has
no more inherent gain than a regular mic. For focus on a single bird a
parabolic will cut out more side noise and amplify the sound along it's
axis better. Of course keeping it aimed at a fast moving hummingbird
would be challenging.
One other trick with the shotgun if you are just recording what's near
to the feeder. Have it either above or below the feeder pointed either
up or down at it. (above is safer from bird droppings) This will cut out
more nearby noise than having it pointed horizontal. Think how a
soundman records dialog on a movie set with his shotgun on a boom above
the actors pointed mostly down. He records a cone shaped space the
actors are in.
Even if recording horizontal have the worst unwanted sound sources
behind you where the shotgun will pick them up the least. For the ME67
the lowest sensitivity is about 60 degrees off straight back on either
side as it has a significant rear pickup lobe.
Walt
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