Scientists don’t know much yet about birdsong. But they are trying to shed some light on its mysteries. Donald Kroodsma, an ornithologist, has written a new book (brief review here on Bookends)
which sheds some light. Professor Kroodsma believes the key to hearing birdsong is seeing it and after recording songs he converts them to sonograms for study. The sonogram is like a musical score for the bird and enables one to visualize the notes. Audubon Magazine has a neat summary on sonograms with song samples here.
Kroodsma’s book comes with a CD full of birdsong which is now loaded on my iPod. I can follow the sonograms in the book and bring them to life with the recordings. Or, just play the birdsongs like any other album. There are lots of sites on the web where you can listen to birdsong and view sonograms.
This is a good one.
Birdsong, when you stop to listen, has amazing variety and this new book will tune your ear to listen. It’s quite a chorus.
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