{"id":2193,"date":"2020-05-07T13:17:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T13:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/?p=2193"},"modified":"2020-05-11T14:41:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T14:41:15","slug":"do-you-hear-what-i-hear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/2020\/05\/07\/do-you-hear-what-i-hear\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Hear What I Hear?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"White
Photography credit: Kai Weatherman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pandemic has found some of us out taking more walks than usual. In some places human noise has subsided<\/a> and it\u2019s possible to hear more nonhuman sound than usual. Perhaps you\u2019re hearing more bird sounds and wonder what they are.<\/p>\n

Donald Kroodsma<\/a>, an authority on bird vocal behavior, believes that \u201cseeing bird sounds\u201d is key to comprehending<\/a> them. He\u2019s referring to sound spectrograms, which chart pitch against time, sort of like a musical score. Cornell Lab of Ornithology<\/a> provides a fun tutorial on birdsong spectrograms in its new interactive learning game, Birdsong Hero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earbirding<\/a> offers more detail on how to visualize sounds and how to describe them in words, based on the Peterson Field Guide to Birds Sounds of Eastern North America<\/a> (e-book requires HawkID login). The Field Guide even has a visual index that can be used to look up bird sounds, once you\u2019re firmly grounded in this method of bird sound description.<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019d just like to dive into bird sounds that you\u2019re likely to hear in Iowa at this time of year, you can start below with links from bird species to audio recordings and spectrograms available from the massive multimedia collection of the Macaulay Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

White Throated Sparrow<\/a><\/p>\n

A simple tune we won\u2019t hear much longer. Mnemonic: \u201cSweet, Canada, Canada, Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Finch<\/a><\/p>\n

A prominent sound in the heart of town.<\/p>\n

House Wren<\/a><\/p>\n

A complex, bubbly song from a bird found around shrubs and low branch trees.<\/p>\n

Black-capped Chickadee<\/a><\/p>\n

This bird is named for one of its songs, but is also easily recognized by this two note whistle.<\/p>\n

Carolina Wren<\/a> <\/p>\n

The distinctive song of this year-round resident is usually a series of whistled couplets or triplets repeated 3 to 5 times. The Carolina Wren also has another unique sound described as a liquid trill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tufted Titmouse<\/a> <\/p>\n

Song consists of a series of single syllabled whistles or a whistled couplet, repeated one to several times. Mnemonic: \u201cpeer peer peer\u201d or \u201cpeter peter peter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chipping Sparrow<\/a><\/p>\n

This song has been described as a dry, unmusical trill.<\/p>\n

Audubon Guide to North American Birds<\/a> also offers a nice selection of audio samples for each species.<\/p>\n

Check back next week for another short list of common bird sounds.<\/p>\n

Thank you to Kai Weatherman for writing this ear-opening post as well as sharing his beautiful bird photography with us!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pandemic has found some of us out taking more walks than usual. In some places human noise has subsided and it\u2019s possible to hear more nonhuman sound than usual. Perhaps you\u2019re hearing more bird sounds and wonder what they are. Donald Kroodsma, an authority on bird vocal behavior, believes that \u201cseeing bird sounds\u201d isContinue reading “Do You Hear What I Hear?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":2194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,51],"tags":[188,187,190,191],"syndication":[41,37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2193"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2202,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193\/revisions\/2202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2193"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=2193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}