4 ms·

I have a speaker in my garden that plays bird songs to the birds, recorded from those same birds. They interact with the 'birds' in the speaker by singing back

by Stevvo 6y ago

I have a speaker in my garden that plays bird songs to the birds, recorded from those same birds. They interact with the 'birds' in the speaker by singing back to them. I'm curious if I could infect those birds with new songs by editing those recordings.

gbrown 6y ago
That may be harmful to some birds, FYI. Among wildlife photographers, playing bird calls is sometimes considered unethical as it can interfere with their natural behavior, cause stress responses, interfere with mating activity, etc. Guide from Audubon on using calls: https://www.audubon.org/news/how-use-birdcall-apps https://www.audubon.org/news/how-use-birdcall-apps
tzs 6y ago
I've on occasion been sitting on my deck reading, while numerous birds are there eating the seeds and peanuts I put out on the deck rail for them and the squirrels. A few times I've played bird sounds from Cornell's "Merlin" app [1] for them from my iPad. So far I've not got any response at all that I could detect. I've tried playing sounds from the same species, including alarm or distress calls, and I've tried playing calls from their predators such as hawks that are known to be in this area. I wonder if the iPad is just not high enough fidelity to fool them? PS: if it worked I wasn't going to keep doing it. I just wanted to see if they would be fooled by my iPad. Obviously I don't actually want to scare the birds away--if I didn't mind birds I wouldn't be putting out food for them in the first place. [1] https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
- Exmoor 6y ago
  The level of response is going to depend a lot on the type of call and time of year. Playing a song to a bird that's on territory during the breeding season will often elicit a very aggressive response. Of course, this assumes you're playing a call from the same species. A Song Sparrow likely isn't likely going to care about a White-Crowned Sparrow song, for instance. One trick birders use to elicit a response from birds is "pishing," [0] which imitates a lot of species scolding calls and gets other birds to come check out the perceived threat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRvdhovTgRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRvdhovTgRo

by Stevvo 6y ago

gbrown 6y ago

That may be harmful to some birds, FYI. Among wildlife photographers, playing bird calls is sometimes considered unethical as it can interfere with their natural behavior, cause stress responses, interfere with mating activity, etc. Guide from Audubon on using calls: https://www.audubon.org/news/how-use-birdcall-apps https://www.audubon.org/news/how-use-birdcall-apps

tzs 6y ago

I've on occasion been sitting on my deck reading, while numerous birds are there eating the seeds and peanuts I put out on the deck rail for them and the squirrels. A few times I've played bird sounds from Cornell's "Merlin" app [1] for them from my iPad. So far I've not got any response at all that I could detect. I've tried playing sounds from the same species, including alarm or distress calls, and I've tried playing calls from their predators such as hawks that are known to be in this area. I wonder if the iPad is just not high enough fidelity to fool them? PS: if it worked I wasn't going to keep doing it. I just wanted to see if they would be fooled by my iPad. Obviously I don't actually want to scare the birds away--if I didn't mind birds I wouldn't be putting out food for them in the first place. [1] https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/

Exmoor 6y ago
The level of response is going to depend a lot on the type of call and time of year. Playing a song to a bird that's on territory during the breeding season will often elicit a very aggressive response. Of course, this assumes you're playing a call from the same species. A Song Sparrow likely isn't likely going to care about a White-Crowned Sparrow song, for instance. One trick birders use to elicit a response from birds is "pishing," [0] which imitates a lot of species scolding calls and gets other birds to come check out the perceived threat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRvdhovTgRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRvdhovTgRo