Comments on: Music of the Birds. And more!

By: Roger Trottier

Roger Trottier — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 01:14:44 +0000

Greg:
I really appreiated your review of the Music of Birds. You have a fine talent for leading your readers through the basics of what might otherwise be mundane “stuff”. Thanks!

By: Dan J. Andrews

Dan J. Andrews — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:54:18 +0000

Yes, space is a problem (sorry, I post and forget I post so I don’t check back to see if there’s feedback). I had to delete some big hog items so I could download the Audubon bird updates to reflect the 53rd supplement to the AOU checklist. So far, Audubon is the only one to update the name changes, something for which they should be commended.

I had to track down all our in-progress reports and all the sections that might have bird scientific names mentioned in them, and change the names to reflect the new changes. No point in sending up any red flags for knowledgeable reviewers….”If he’s the expert, why didn’t he know the names have been updated? We’d better take a closer look at their other data….” The updated Audubon app was very very handy.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:20:12 +0000

The problem is going to be space. If you put all the Audubon animal guides and most of the known bird guides other than Audubon on an iPad, it doesn’t fit. But the next generation of storage at that level will allow us to walk around with a myriad of exemplars per species’ song/vocalization!

By: Daniel J. Andrews

Daniel J. Andrews — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 20:40:25 +0000

Hadn’t heard of Chirp before so will look into it. Thanks. Do have Audubon’s and iBird. Like you, I prefer the iBird version. I especially like the fact that they have both drawings and pictures, plus great links to further information (if you`re near wifi). Still, I managed to get Audubon for .99 cents so it was well worth it.

One ‘complaint’ I have about bird song learning software is that they don’t cover the myriad of versions of songs. Borror and Gunn did in their warblers but even that great work lacks some rather common variations in bird song.

In the past compilers were limited to what would fit on CDs, but now we can fit a great deal more into a program. I think it is well past time for a leap forward in bird song learning programs.I’ve started supplementing my bird CDs (burned to mp3 and wav files) with variations taken from online recordings…I’d be willing to pay money if someone would do that work for me and produce a nice program with lots of versions of the songs.

By: Evolution of the Multi-Media Bird

Evolution of the Multi-Media Bird — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:06:23 +0000

[…] and stuff that are far away. Meantime, I got a copy of an iAuthored iBook on birds that I’ve reviewed here. And all this has caused there to be musings in my head about multi-media technology, birds, and […]