Resources - Birdsong and Audio Resources

Birdsong and Audio Resources

Knowing birdsong is very important when looking for spring songbirds at Monticello Park. Many birds are heard before they are seen; others are heard and not seen at all.

These links are to online sources of birdsong recordings.

The Macaulay Library of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has compiled the most comprehensive set of bird recordings for North American birds. The library offers a collection with the most common vocalizations and sounds of American birds as well as one that features only warbler species. It also offers a much more comprehensive collection that includes five times as many recordings — a lot of species, including many of the warblers, have multiple vocalizations.

The Cornell Lab offers a free software program called Raven Lite that allows users to record, save, and visualize sounds as spectrograms and waveforms. Raven Lite is intended for students, educators, and hobbyists, and can be used for learning about sounds, as an aid in birdsong recognition, and in musical instruction. The Cornell Lab also offers a program called Raven Pro [$] for the acquisition, visualization, measurement, and analysis of sounds. Raven Pro provides a powerful, user-friendly research and teaching tool for scientists working with acoustic signals, and its highly configurable views provide flexibility in data display.

Many birders are now using the free Merlin app to identify bird vocalizations. You simply hold up your mobile phone or other device and record the vocalizations. Merlin will suggest what you are hearing. Be sure to download the proper bird vocalization pack so that Merlin will know the area for which you want vocalization information. Here are links to Merlin and other bird vocalization apps:

Merlin
Larkwire (free, offers in-app purchases)
Bird Songs USA & Canada ($)

These apps contain vocalizations of North American birds:

The Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America ($)
Audubon Bird Guide
Larkwire ($)
Merlin Bird ID
The Warbler Guide ($)

These links are to CDs and books to help you learn birdsong:

Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist: Your Guide to Listening Donald Kroodsma, 2020
[This book contains 75 hours of bird vocalizations at the website Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist. Please purchase the book if you want to use the website.]
Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern Region Donald Stokes, Lillian Stokes, and Lang Elliot, 2012
Birding by Ear: Eastern/Central Richard K. Walton and Robert W. Lawson, 2002
[Birding by Ear features 10 species of warblers. A second volume called More Birding by Ear was subsequently issued containing an additional 25 species of warblers. Unfortunately, the second volume is no longer being issued.]
The Backyard Birdsong Guide: A Guide to Listening Donald Kroodsma, 2016
Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds of Eastern North America Nathan Pieplow, 2017
A Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern and Central North America Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and Roger Tory Peterson, 2002
Common Birds and Their Songs Lang Elliott, 1998

The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong Donald Kroodsma, 2005

The list below is a collection of the audio links from all pages of the Bird Species section on this website.

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