{"id":35176,"date":"2022-06-08T18:32:58","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T23:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/?p=35176"},"modified":"2025-10-08T13:10:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T18:10:47","slug":"the-studied-art-of-earbirding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/the-studied-art-of-earbirding\/","title":{"rendered":"The Studied Art Of Earbirding"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"yellow
Photo by kidmoses\/Pixabay<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of us have spent a large part of our lives enjoying birds in the wild in a practice branded as birding<\/a>. It\u2019s fun to watch for certain kinds of birds, to photograph them, to watch their daily interaction, or simply to have the comfort of birds attracted to a location. While birding is an all-encompassing term to identify a hobby, there are specifics that we tend to not recognize as a niche component of birding. One of them is a hobby referred to as earbirding.<\/p>\n

Earbirding, or birding by ear, is a practice whereby bird lovers work hard to recognize the sound of a specific species without sighting the bird itself. This is often a secondary level to avid birders who have seen all the birds they want and can easily identify them by sight. This new challenge is a more complex one. It requires extreme attentive behavior and extraordinary learning processes to be able to identify a bird specifically \u2014 and only \u2014 by sound.<\/p>\n

Earbirding Deciphers An Earful Of Birdsong<\/h3>\n

The art of birdsong and sound is a maturing process in a birder\u2019s life as they learn to identify what the different sounds produced by a single bird might actually mean. They can tell if a bird\u2019s whistle is calm or concerned. They can identify the mating sounds. Basically, any sound a bird can make for whatever reasons they vocalize them can be understood by the seasoned earbirder. Birds themselves are often mimics and can replicate sounds of others. True earbirders can effortlessly differentiate between the real bird and the mimic just by listening.<\/p>\n

Female birds and male birds aren\u2019t just different by their gender and sometimes visual appearance, they often sing differently. Of course, this adds to the complexity of identifying birds by sound. Is it a male cardinal or a female cardinal? Who sings more frequently? Do males make a unique sound that females do not? Ask an experienced earbirder, I\u2019m betting you\u2019ll get an earful of information.<\/p>\n

Learning The Art Of Earbirding<\/h3>\n

As in any market, there are books and recordings, and websites that cater to this level of birding. One of the premier books on the sounds of birds is the Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds<\/em>. The guide is sold in two volumes that explore the sounds in either Eastern North America<\/a> or Western North America<\/a>. Compiled by Nathan Pieplow, the books detail sounds of over 500 North American birds, provides spectrograms (for the truly discriminating and intense participant in earbirding), and offers access to recorded audio on the publisher\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, there are downloadable phone apps that can record the sound of an unfamiliar bird and provide a true spectrogram. The spectrogram can then be looked up (one source is the previously mentioned Peterson Field Guide) and matched to known spectrograms from any bird. Instant knowledge! Both iPhones and Android-based phones have access to these apps. Even Alexa (the Amazon hardware tech assistant) can identify more than 2,000 bird sounds just by asking. The sounds are pulled from the rich Audubon library by Alexa and replayed for you.<\/p>\n

As with regular birding, there are clubs and collectives that gather to discuss the intricacies of bird sounds exclusive of sighting. Many birding clubs offer classes and prepared talks about this specific method of birding.<\/p>\n

Birding in any form of enjoyment is a calming experience and a fun hobby. The internet is a rich place to discover all methods, providing information on how to improve in every area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you think of the popular pastime of birding, images of folks with binoculars aimed up at a tree as they zero-in on a bird typically come to mind. However, there\u2019s more to birding than what meets the eye. Earbirding is just how it sounds \u2014 identifying birds by the vocalizations they make. Those who bird by ear are listening for telltale contact calls, songs, and other vocalizations to identify a bird\u2019s species. See how this form of birding takes an extraordinary learning process to able to identify a bird specifically \u2013 and only \u2013 by sound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8046,"featured_media":45537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-everyday"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Studied Art Of Earbirding – Pet Birds by Lafeber Co.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Earbirding is just how it sounds \u2014 identifying birds by the vocalizations they make. 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