Pocket Bird Recording

[Henry Domke]

Does anyone on this forum have experience recording songs for immediate playback in the field to attract songbirds? If so, please share your experiences with “pocket bird recording (http://blog.aba.org/2013/09/pocket-bird-recording-in-the-field.html)”.

My limited experience has been with recordings that others have made. In the past I used a portable CD player; now I use my iPhone with Apps such as BirdTunes (the attached image is a BirdTunes screenshot).

It seems like a hassle to have to carry a microphone in addition to the iPhone. However, some microphones such as the Edutige EIM-003 are pretty small.



Is pocket bird recording really better than playback of pre-recorded songs for attracting birds?
Does it make a big difference on some birds and none on others?
Are there any down sides to it other than the hassle?


Thanks for any thoughts you might have on this.

[arash_hazeghi]

I sometimes use calls to attract harriers (same app). It sure depends on the bird, some birds respond to calls some usually don't

[Cal Walters]

The apps have bird vocalizations from a variety of geographic locations. I have noticed that some birds would not react to a vocalization type from one geography, but would to the same type of vocalization from another geography (closer to the actual location). I stumbled on this by using the calls from different apps and noted differing types of responses. My guess - purely that - is that if a bird is vocalizing in an area and another bird is present and it sounds similar, it is more likely to get a reaction. So if you have the set up to capture the call and categorize it and playback for future use - it would be more successful. That being said, there are times when nobodys reactin' to nothin'. time of year seems to be a big indicator.