Massive online database of bird calls unveiled

Twitchers among the Reg readership – and there must be a few of you, it's a hobby based on obsessive knowledge of minutiae and enhanced by gadgets – take heed. A massive online database of bird calls has been made available free online for your listening enjoyment. Professor Pamela Rasmussen. Credit: MSU Are you looking at …

[Gordon Pryra]

Can we add sounds to the database?

I have got the call of some bird from Newcastle on my voice-mail, its a perfect example of its kind.

[Sarah Bee]

Re: Can we add sounds to the database?

It's funny because 'bird' is a commonly-used slang term for 'woman'.

[web_bod]

lesser spotted

Ms Bee aside does El Reg attract many women readers?

[Tux - 'cause it's all about the birds]

[Sarah Bee]

Re: lesser spotted

What do you think?

[Lottie]

Re: lesser spotted

*sigh*

[thecakeis(not)alie]

I know a few ladies that read this rag...

...but if you call them 'birds' you'd better be ready for some Angry Birds...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's observations like that

put me in mind of eating crumpet.

[Graham Marsden]

"The call of some bird from Newcastle"

Which sounds approximately like "Nahleevimkevin'eeaintworfit!"

[Richard IV]

Missed photo opportunity

You'd have thought they'd go the extra mile and take a picture of the prof with an avocet rather than a (taxidermic) hoopoe.

[despicable me]

Could have been worse

They might have photographed her with two specimens of Parus major and really helped the caption writer.

[Spartacus]

Could have been worse (Cont)

Sula leucogaster

or

Phalacrocorax aristotelis

[Blofeld's Cat]

Updates?

Can you get regular updates by Twitter?

OK, OK

[Big Al]

But does it have...

... a facility for tweeting the tweets?

[George Nacht]

Twitcher

at least, according to Romero movies, is a zombie with damaged spine, but not yet destroyed brain. So it twitches and bites, but luckily not walks. I always knew that something is amiss about these types, lurking aroung woods with microphones.

[Sarah Bee]

Re: Twitcher

Some words have more than one meaning. I have noted this.

[John Gamble]

Re: Twitcher

"Some words have more than one meaning. I have noted this."

Educationally, too. I had not heard of either definition before.

Does "twitcher" encompass the people who make bird calls too, or just the ones that hide in forests with binoculars?

[Tim Walker]

Wonder if I'll be the first...

...to ask whether the database contains the unmistakeable "Aaaahhh-JIMMAH!" call of the Lesser Red Angry Bird as it launches itself headlong at the porcine enemy's fortifications?

I'll get my coat (the one with a pic on the back of a smug-looking green pig who's just survived another level)...

[ShaggyDoggy]

Where's the tits

you know I mean blue ones

[Uk_Gadget]

No Title to be seen

Well, it is cold outside!

Paris cos she's 'a bird aint she'

[Hugh Pumphrey]

They are exactly where you would expect

Type "Parus" in the search box: Parus ater and Parus atricapillus pop right up on the first of at least six pages. Dunno about Parus caeruleus though or the reg readers' favourite: Parus major. The later pages are not loading as the entire site seems to have become cheepdotted.

[Lottie]

I always wondered if...

...birds must have regional dialects -like dog barks do- I'm glad to find out this IS the case :-)

That's a huge database. Assuming each of the tweets is in a decent lossless format, the amount of data must be immense!

[Tom 7]

We know that certain species will go extinct in the near future

and a lot quicker now I can use an audio decoy to get them to come to me!

Anyone for cock linnet for a not so chirpy cockney knees up?

[Wize]

Revenge for the wood pigeon that wakes me up on my days off

I'll be able to entice it into cricket bat range rather than trying to shoot it with this police taser I found...

[Richard 23]

Full marks ...

..for the most contrived acronym of the month!

[Youngone]

Birds

Site seems to have been slashdotted, so I can't check if they have any New Zealand birds sounds. Does anyone want the lecture about how New Zealand is the best place in the world for bird sounds, as there are no native terrestrial mammals, so the birds evolved to fill all the niches mammals fill on the big continents? No? Anyway if you've got a recording of a Moa you're a bloody tit.

[JaitcH]

Regional bird accents

As someone who has travelled worldwide, I have noticed chickens and owls have distinctive regional calls.

Some owls in, at least, Western Greece making a 'bopping' cry as opposed to the 'twit-twoooo' of the English owl.

The 'morning call' of cockerels, which seem to have no or little relationship to sun-rise are even more distinctly more varied, even to the untrained ear. Having listened to such calls for years in Buckinghamshire, the damn multiple cocks within earshot of my small place on the Greek isle of Kithnos are extremely different both in timing and tone, and seem to start around 04.00H and carry on throughout the day!

My favourite bird call is the plaintiff call of the Canadian Loon < http://www.junglewalk.com/sound/loon-sounds.htm >.

P.S. When travelling, take time to study the night-sky filled with stars - and how it changes from place to place.

[Tempest]

Plaintiff or plaintive?

I think your Dragon Dictating picked the wrong word!

I think the one you wanted was 'plaintive'!

[Alex, Leeds]

Lyre bird

I saw this a couple of years ago when David Attenborough was on Jonathan Ross - you have to be impressed by this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y

[Daniel Evans]

Thanks

I saw this on TV once, but never managed to catch the name of the bird to show others.

Off I go to email the link!

[JP Strauss]

RE: Lyre Bird

Also read up on the New Zealand Kea. Smartest bird I've ever seen.