
The Healing Power of Birdsong - tintinnabula
https://standpointmag.co.uk/issues/may-june-2020/the-healing-power-of-birdsong/
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BrianB
I've been watching my neighborhood birds for a while now and they indeed have
individual personalities. It's pretty cool to know for example when a
neighborhood cat is approaching, how it's approaching (stalking or walking?),
and even which cat it is all because the birds communicate it to each other.

If you're interested in diving deeper into this bird world, I'd recommend
starting with "What the Robin Knows" by Jon Young
[https://www.amazon.com/What-Robin-Knows-Secrets-
Natural/dp/0...](https://www.amazon.com/What-Robin-Knows-Secrets-
Natural/dp/054400230X)

Jon still does a lot of programs and workshops and research and it can be a
fascinating rabbit hole to dive into.

~~~
zxexz
Wow, so cool to see someone reference Jon Young on HN.

I was about 12 or so when was gifted a copy (is that an appropriate term for a
cassette pack?) of Seeing Through Native Eyes[0], which I devoured. That led
me to his book Advanced Bird Language[1], which blew my adolescent mind. I
still have both, and a lot of the material has really stuck with me.

[0] [http://8shields.org/store/audio-products/seeing-through-
nati...](http://8shields.org/store/audio-products/seeing-through-native-eyes-
with-jon-young/)

[1] [http://8shields.org/advanced-bird-language-with-jon-
young/](http://8shields.org/advanced-bird-language-with-jon-young/)

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sdenton4
Just a small advert... We've just launched a Kaggle competition on birdsong
identification this week!

[https://www.kaggle.com/c/birdsong-
recognition/discussion](https://www.kaggle.com/c/birdsong-
recognition/discussion)

One of the organizers wrote the BirdNET app... Improvements can help both the
app and a lot of passive ecosystem monitoring projects. It's also a great
excuse to listen to birdsong!

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mongol
I am interested in bird watching as a hobby. An "unfortunate" but intrinsic
aspect of it is that since bird species varies between continents, some
knowledge is less applicable. When I bought my first book about bird songs in
English I did not realize that, it mostly mentioned American species that are
not present in Europe. I did not learn much applicable knowledge from it.

Another example, in the /r/birding subreddit people are mainly discussing
about American birds.

Obviously, this is natural and nothing to really complain about. But it often
requires to "read between the lines" to understand the location context in a
discussion, especially when you are new.

~~~
sdenton4
The Sound Approach to Birding is a bit more European. (it was my first book on
bird song, though I live in the US... So I feel your pain.) It has a lot of
good general knowledge, and then Merlin and Xeno Canto can help from there.

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anitil
Highly recommend the Sound Escapes podcast by birdnote. It takes you to
multiple locations where you can (among other sounds) listen to the bird
calls.

[https://www.birdnote.org/blog/2019/07/sound-
escapes](https://www.birdnote.org/blog/2019/07/sound-escapes)

~~~
pwdisswordfish2
Gordon Hempton is legendary. I will always remember him for attaching his mics
to a mannequin head.

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squatchd
I've found the combination of birdNET and Merlin out of the Cornell
Ornithology lab to be pretty awesome for learning about the local birds on the
fly. Pretty awesome work coming out of that group.

~~~
jrace
birdNET and Merlin are some of the most used apps on my phone, amazing how
well the birdNET would identify a bird even with background traffic noise.

If it wasn't for that app I would have never realized I was on an actual snipe
hunt.

[https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Snipe/overview](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Snipe/overview)

The 'winnowing' sound they make was driving us nuts trying to identify the
bird.

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every
The mockingbirds[0] are starting to show up in numbers. Quite the
repertoire...

[0][https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Mockingbird/ove...](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Mockingbird/overview)

~~~
grasshopperpurp
In the morning and early evening, there's a window where it seems like all the
mockingbirds are singing from the various canopies, and it creates such
delicate walls of sound. With the transitioning light, it's about as good as
it gets. Once the blue jays start squawking, you know the chorus is nearing
its end.

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lerie1982
tldr; it's an article about William Henry Hudson

~~~
dorkwood
Who is that?

