Customer Reviews

Birding by Ear: Eastern/Central (Peterson Field Guides)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I spend alot of time outdoors and have always been curious about identifying birds, trees and wildflowers around me. This set of CDs is the second set of bird calls I have purchased (and this does not even include all the on-line browsing and listening at the USGS Patuxent site). I have had a lot of difficulty with single bird/associated song or call types of audio (ie. name of bird-recording of call, next bird...). There are a lot of birds out there, and it is tough memory recall when you have a CD of 200 some bird calls and it is basically rote memorization to try to remember them. Not a whole lot of fun if you are a relative amateur and trying to learn to identify birds by call confidently. Those CDs will probably be useful for reference at a later time, but not now.

I then picked up the Learning By Ear CDs. Wow! This is what I should have bought a long time ago. There are 85 birds included on these 3 CDs, but they are grouped in a very intelligent fashion. Instead of just rote memorization, the birds are grouped by category. There is a really nice introduction on the first CD and then birds are presented BY GROUP (ie. Sing-Songers, Chippers and Trillers, Name-Sayers...). I cannot emphasize enough how useful this approach is to learning. Instead of just giving the sounds of, say, a Downy Woodpeckers, the CD pairs similar sounding woodpeckers so you learn that a Downy has a descending whinny and a Hairy Woodpecker has an even sounding rattle - they are compared and contrasted together it is very effective. I learned more listening to these CDs than I ever learned through rote memorization. All three CDs contain bird groupings and the last CD also includes groupings by HABITAT as well: Forest Edges, Forest Interiors, Throughout, Freshwater Wetlands, Southern Forests, Northern Forests, Hedgerows and Thickets, Old Field and Open Fields, Oak-Pine Woodlands, and Urban Parks. The informational booklet included with the CDs is also quite nice and includes summaries of the information presented on the CD along with information found in standard birding books. All together, it makes a nice, complete set if you are just starting out or want to improve your identifying skills.

To summarize, if you are interested in learning to identify birds based on their songs and calls, ignore all the other CDs out there and just pick this set up. Once you become confident and learn from these CDs, you will be better able to evaluate if you need to buy anything else. Don't forget also that these things take effort. You cannot just pop the discs in and expect to become an expert overnight. I listen on my commutes to and from work, take a lot of walks in the woods, and learn a group at a time.

When I first received this CD I was disappointed & overwhelmed. I thought, how could I possibly learn any of these bird calls (I'm 50 years old). It seemed like a monumental task. Well, I kept listening over and over (thinking the mnemonics were silly) and low and behold things started to click. I made a few forays into the field and was very excited when I heard bird calls and the mnemonics made sense. I still get excited when I'm able to identify a bird by song or call. I even find myself doing it on TV commercials. This CD isn't any good if you don't include field work with it. Practice, practice, practice and one day you will be out in the field and hear a bird and know exactly what you are looking for. This CD has made me a much better birder.

I listen to these CDs while working out at the gym and boy did it pay off. While on vacation last summer in Vermont I could identify almost every bird call I heard without even trying. My ears would prick up at every sound of a bird and I would know what it was. It's a great feeling to take a walk in the woods or to garden in your back yard and know who is out there with you without fumbling with your binoculars. These are excellent CDs.

"The songs we're now hearing are ancient tunes..."

So begins Dick Walton's evocative and thoughtful narrative to these wonderful birdsong recordings. I learned many bird songs when I was young. That knowledge has stayed with me over the years but I always wanted to learn more. I became aware of this CD after purchasing The Singing Life of Birds by Donald Kroodsma. Kroodsma's enjoyable book contains a CD which includes owl recordings from the Peterson Field Guide. I liked those so much I tracked down this CD to hear more. I wasn't disappointed. This is an excellent CD set. The field recordings and production values are second to none. The sound quality is superb. Dick Walton helps us sort out all of these complex sounds and match them to the birds that sing them. What a pleasure it is to sit and listen to this three CD set through headphones. The CD package also comes with a 62 page identification guide showing all the birds whose beautiful songs are captured in these recordings.

I'm a novice who became interested in birds and their songs when I bought a house and discovered all kinds of interesting birds in the backyard. I love this CD set because it doesn't just play bird songs, it teaches you how to listen, and gives you hints and tricks to help differentiate between similar-sounding species. I listen to this set in my car during my commute, and now I can identify almost every sound I hear in my backyard.

By grouping bird song according to characteristics, this clear guide makes it easier to learn and be able to identify bird song. The method of grouping similar types of songs on the CD, along with the brief, written guide enclosed, enables you to locate and identify birds you hear in the field much more easily than guides that simply list songs in order of the species' appearance in bird guides. Songs and calls are both included, as well as variations, which is very helpful as birds have "dialects" and variations in song patterns just like people of different areas have.

I recently got interested in birding a few months ago and asked for this CD set for my birthday. My mom gave it to me and I couldn't believe how easy it made recognizing a LOT of different bird songs and calls. The narrator gives you a "handle" on each bird song so you can remember it easily, and he gives great suggestions on how to devise your own handles. Similar-sounding birds don't seem confusing after he explains the differences to listen for. He educates you, but doesn't include any unnecessary "filler" information, only what is important and what will really matter out in the field.
Before I listened to it, I thought the narration would just be someone saying, "This is the Orchard Oriole" with a short snippet of what one sounds like, then on to the next bird. But it was a great surprise to get all this extra information. He also repeats the songs several times so you don't have to constantly rewind, and he pauses for just the right amount of time between repetitions; I found that I learned the calls pretty fast if I had the right number of seconds to consider each one. Believe it or not, after several seconds you actually do start to forget what you just heard, but it was uncanny how at the very moment I'd start to forget, it would repeat, and that was very satisfying.
I never write reviews for anything, but on this particular product, I felt like the makers really needed to be commended for sharing their knowledge in such a thorough and extremely effective fashion. They obviously spent a lot of time deciding what to include, how to arrange everything, and how to explain everything to a novice so that they would understand. Real quality seems so rare these days. I appreciated the fact that their main objective was really to teach effectively, not just to put a CD together that would make money. You'll be way more excited about birding after you listen to these CDs.
Also I wanted to mention that the audio quality is absolutely superb. One time I started my car while the CD was in, and I didn't realize it was starting to play...I got really excited because I thought I heard a White-Throated Sparrow loud and clear right by my car, so I frantically screamed to my son that one must be RIGHT NEXT TO US SOMEWHERE!!! ... but then I realized it was the CD and I was so embarrassed.
My favorite ones to listen to are the Pileated Woodpecker, the Bobolink, the Red-Shouldered Hawk and the Barred Owl. These 4 birds sound extremely bizarre and you will probably laugh your head off at the sounds they make. The Bobolink sounds like a spastic alien computer switchboard. The Veery is unbelievably weird and haunting, and the Eastern Meadowlark and Northern Cardinal are really beautiful. There are lots of different song categories which are separated and easy to find if you are looking for a certain one. Also, if you have kids, their jaws will drop listening to the intriguing sounds. Most of the birds are pretty common so you are bound to hear at least some of them if you just walk around outside.
Can you tell I'm impressed?!!!

The narrator discusses each bird's song and/or call, telling you specific things to listen for, including comparisons to similar calls. Then the song/call is played. The narrator finally reviews what you heard, pointing out similarities and differences again, as well as noting peculiarities. I found this to be a very simple to follow format, and one which helped me to remember the songs/calls of each bird better than similar CD's which just give the name of the bird & then let you hear the song/call. A booklet is included for review as well.

I decided to get serious about learning bird song for the Eastern US but had a hard time figuring out which CD to buy. What I found was no one CD does it all, they all have pros and cons. I ended up with 4 CDs -- and a DVD. Below is my take on them. In the end, while it took a bit of persistence, learning bird song has been an extremely rewarding experience, adding a new dimension to any walk.

I started with Feith's Bird Song Ear Training Guide: Who Cooks for Poor Sam Peabody? Learn to Recognize the Songs of Birds from the Midwest and Northeast States (1 CD). The big advantage of this CD is that it gives the song/call first, and then identifies the bird. So you can download the clips to an iPod, set it on random, and constantly test yourself. It covers 189 species, which is a lot. Finally, the narrator has a pleasant voice and often gives mnemonic suggestions (e.g., "Over here dear" for the Baltimore Oriole). This CD has two big disadvantages. First, many of the songs/calls are very short (many less than a few seconds). Second, there are very few songs/calls given for each bird (usually only one or two). In retrospect, they simply tried to cram too many birds onto one CD. These two defects greatly undercut the value of an otherwise good disk. Also, the birds are coupled so that if you download clips and try and randomize them you will always get the same two birds paired in the same order (the birds are ordered by alphabet). This makes it hard to learn the second birds based solely on the song of the bird - the Turkey always comes after the Towhee.

A friend gave me Elliott and Read's Common Birds and Their Songs (Book and Audio CD). In contrast to "Bird Song Ear Training Guide" this disk provides a variety of lengthy songs/calls for each bird. It pretty thoroughly covers 50 of the most common birds. It also comes with a glossy softcover book with great pictures and informative one page write-ups. I have a few problems with this disk. First, the bird is identified before each call, so it's hard to test yourself. Second, I'm sure Lang Elliott is a very nice man, but he doesn't have the most sonorous voice. Finally, the audio CD does not provide any mnemonics and there are only a few in the book.

Another friend gave me Elliott's Know Your Bird Sounds, Volume 1: Yard, Garden, and City Birds . This is similar to "Common Birds and Their Songs" but only covers 35 birds (as opposed to 50) although some are not included in "Common Birds." It also comes with a book with nice photographs but has less information on the birds and just focuses on describing their songs. The CD includes more information on the bird song than "Common Birds" (Elliott essentially reads the book) but has the same drawbacks; mainly, it identifies the bird before the song.

Having read that it greatly helps to simultaneously see and hear a bird singing its song, I purchased Feith's DVD Birds, Birds, Birds! An Indoor Birdwatching Field Trip DVD Video Bird and Bird Song Guide. This was a disappointment. In general it is the "Bird Song Ear Training Guide" CD (see above) matched up with still photographs and occasional video footage of the appropriate bird. It includes about a dozen more birds than the CD and can be arranged by "sound alikes" and set up to give one a quiz, but the drawbacks that undercut the CD - the brevity of the songs and lack of diversity of calls per bird - undercut the DVD.

Having made progress but still unsatisfied, I finally broke down and bought the product featured above: Walton and Lawson's "Birding by Ear: Eastern/Central" 3 CD set (published by Peterson Guides). It is a nice combination of lots of birds (about 85) with a long and diverse set of song/calls for each. The birds are also categorized by the similarity of song, which I found a helpful learning device. It comes with a paper pamphlet giving a very short description of each bird and a nice list of mnemonics at the back. The CD gives a fair amount of information along with the songs and is easy to listen to. The biggest drawbacks are the birds are identified before the song (although there is an extensive quiz by habitat which compensates for this somewhat)and the clips go on for so long, due to the narration and groupings, that you can't really use them to download on an iPod and test yourself. I guess nothing is perfect.

I am a novice bird watcher, and my enjoyment has increased exponentially after listening to these fabulous recordings. The material is logically organized and beautifully presented. Great to listen to in the car when heading to or from an outdoor adventure!