Birdlistening.net is
Patrick Franke, Berlin-based freelance ornithologist & sound recordist
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Intention
This blog is intended as a loose and sometimes random collection of
short analysis and interpretations of vocalisations as well as behavioural
biological contexts of Western Palaearctic bird taxa.
My aspiration is to share knowledge acquired and elaborated on these
subjects as well as my sound recordings and I hope that it will encourage
more people to work more intensively with birds sounds.
I am always happy about constructive criticism and exchange.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch: say hello!
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Acknowledgment
I would like to thank the following people for their support, my mentors,
friends and all other people who have shared their knowledge in the
field and fruitful discussions:
Arnoud van den Berg, Hans-Heiner Bergmann, Benjamin Brenneis,
Andreas Buchheim, Stephan Ernst, Thijs Fijen, Simone Grüttner, Jens
Halbauer, Michael Heiß, Stella Klasan, Steve Klasan, Donald Kroodsma,
Roland Neumann, Tom Noah, Peter Nuyten, Hanna Pamuła, Lukas
Pelikan, Michèle Peron, Nathan Pieplow, Mathias Putze , Magnus Robb,
Thomas Sacher, Michael Schulz, Cheryl Tipp, Chris Watson, Tom Wulff
and Matthew Young.
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Background
The first edition (1894) of Alwin Voigt’s »Exkursionsbuch zum Studium
der Vogelstimmen« (»Field Guide to Bird Sound Studies«), as a
supplement of a Leipzig school magazine, marked the beginning of
a new era in the analysis of bird sounds, although originally Voigt’s
approach was merely focused on identifying bird species in the field.
Alwin Voigt wrote down the sequences of bird vocalizations in a free
form in time and frequency and thus deviated from the common musical
notation to describe bird songs. He anticipated the spectrogram as a
precise visualisation for bird vocalizations long before the sonograph
was invented. This brought a significant shift from biased onomatopoeic
descriptions or the vague depictions provided by the use of musical
notes, to an analytic way of observation, comparison and interpretation.
This new approach to bird sounds was an important contribution to the
then young field of bird sound studies, as it especially allowed even
„ordinary people“ to practice ornithology without requiring the knowledge
of musical notes.
The whole field of bioacoustic research has been influenced significantly
by technical developments from the 20th century until today.
The availability of (semi-) mobile audio recorders allowed the „transfer“
of bird sounds from the field into the labs in order to analyse them more
accurately by playing them repeatedly or slowed down.
The invention of the sonograph was a milestone in the scientific research
of animal sounds. It was now possible to visualise and then compare
different sound recordings to analyse and describe similar bird species
and to differentiate specific, individual, seasonal or geographical variations
in bird sounds.
Ornithology is still confronted with a huge mass of unsolved queries,
despite an enormous gain of knowledge and the publication of
numerous papers on the acoustic communication among birds.
Even after decades of research, questions on form, function, evolution
or transformation of bird vocalisation remain contested.
Especially in Europe, where an overbearing science culture has never
set a high value on knowledge transfer, the comprehensible approach
to complex issues has to remain an important task.
Patrick Franke, 2018