birding-aus

Song Sleuth

To: "'Peter Ewin'" <>, <>
Subject: Song Sleuth
From: "Tony Russell" <>
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:20:45 +0930
I reckon a gadget like that described for ID'ing bird calls would take a
lot of fun out of birding. Being able to ID a bird by its call is almost
as good as seeing the bird and can save an awful lot of time otherwise
looking for something making a noise which you don't recognise.  I too
am losing my top end frequency hearing but I can just still hear
grasswrens etc. It's also somewhat gratifying when a less acoustically
astute birder asks what a particular call might be and you are able to
give a fairly confident suggestion which turns out to be correct once
the bird is seen. Be nice to also have telescopic eyes and save on the
expense of binos.

Tony Russell


-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of Peter Ewin
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 8:54 AM
To: 
Subject: Song Sleuth

I believe that it will take longer than 5 years before this technology
is 
really seful for birds. Analysis of bat echolocation (Anabat) has been 
around since the early nineties, and still requires interpretation by an

experienced person to get calls correct, and some species , such as 
long-eared bats (Nyctophilus) still can't be separated. Many calls can
only 
be identified to probable or possible level as well. The technology with

this has advanced remarkedly in the last 5 years, but I think many of
the 
IDs done in the past, could be classed as dubious at the least.
Admittedly part of the problem is the lack of reference calls for 
comparison, particularly across the whole distribution of all species. 
Recording bats isn't like birds where you can do the recording and then 
track down the bird for ID. Also they probably have different calls for 
feeding and alarm, so when recorded after being released, is probably
not a 
typical call for all species.
The database required for birds across the entire country is likely to
be 
huge, some species will be easy to identify by a computer, though these
are 
probably also likely to be easy to identiy by ear and if like doing bat 
work, much comparison is done by comparing sonographs visually.

Anyway the idea is a good one, but I wait for the binoculars that have a

database of identifyting features and automatically calculate what
species 
you are looking at and put a litle text label at the top of your view.
Cheers,
Peter


>From: "Hugo Phillipps" <>
>Reply-To: "Hugo Phillipps" <>
>To: <>
>Subject: Re: [BIRDING-AUS] Song Sleuth
>Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 23:41:51 +1000
>
>[BIRDING-AUS] Re: Song SleuthHi everybody -
>
>I see no reason in principle why such a device shouldn't be able to
work 
>well, if it has a comprehensive library of bird calls to compare, and
after 
>any initial bugs have been eliminated.  It's been done for years with 
>microbats.  Of course birdsong is much more complex than the
echolocation 
>calls of bats, and there are potential problems with mimicry and
regional 
>dialects, but I can easily imagine that 'call identifiers' - at half
the 
>price and a third the weight of the early example cited - will be
available 
>for Australian birds within five years.  I don't see them as a threat
in 
>any way.  They may make bird surveys somewhat simpler, although they
can 
>only complement visual ID - not replace it.  Birders with hearing 
>difficulties may welcome them - and not everyone is adept at learning
to 
>recognise calls.  After, all, you don't have to use them if they offend

>your purist sensibilities.
>
>And thanks to Peter for bringing this to our notice.
>
>Cheers,
>Hugo
>
>Hugo Phillipps
>Queenscliff, Vic
>No virus found in this outgoing message.
>Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
>Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.7.10/25 - Release Date:
2005-06-21


--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to 

--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to 

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU