“It’s indicating to me - as the blind birder, uncertain as to my place in science - that I actually can compete with other ornithologists that can spot birds through binoculars and so forth, which I can’t really do,” he said. Learning the percentage of birds that one might only ever have a chance to identify by ear gave Mr. The Mexican whip-poor-will, which can be found in the southwestern U.S., has a call that sounds like its name. Whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will! Even when I’m in urban environments, it can tell me about the quality of habitat.” It tells me about this specific landscape that I’m in. “It tells me about the weather, and the seasons. “I’m always listening to what kind of birds I can hear in any given environment, whenever I step outside, and it tells me so much,” he said. “Something like 60 to 70 percent of the birds that you will encounter, you will only be able to encounter by ear,” Mr. Trevor Attenberg, a scientist and writer who is blind and lives in Portland, Ore., pointed out there are plenty of birds you have far less chance of seeing than hearing. Audio via Jerry Berrier ‘A Bird Heard’įor birders looking to build out their “life list” of every bird they’ve ever spotted, knowing these calls can be indispensable: The American Birding Association’s rules for identifying a bird species make no qualitative distinction between “a bird heard” and “a bird seen.” To some, the Northern cardinal sounds like it’s saying “pretty, pretty, pretty.” Audubon Vermont compares its call to a Star Wars light saber. Watch here! Watch here! Cheer, watch here! Cheer! Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty. For the eastern towhee, he said, listen for a bird that tweets: “ Drink yer teeeeea.” The American robin sounds like it’s singing, “Cheer up, cheerily.” The Northern cardinal might be saying, ‘ Watch here, watch here.’” American goldfinches call “potato chip” in flight, while olive-sided flycatchers chirp, “ Quick! Three beers!” When teaching newcomers how to distinguish birds by ear, Mr. Berrier pointed people to the resonant song of an ovenbird the buzzy trills of various warblers and the flutelike notes of a Baltimore oriole, which sometimes sounds like it’s saying: “Here here come right here, dear.” Berrier’s home is surrounded by an audio mixer and sound recording equipment - parabolic microphones and devices he has custom-made - piping in bird sounds from the outdoors in real time, and recording bird song in quieter environments.Īt the Ipswich bird sit, Mr. He doesn’t even need to step outside to listen. According to Freya McGregor, a 35-year-old birder and occupational therapist specializing in blindness and low vision, the term “birder” was once reserved for those who were more serious than the hobbyist “bird watcher.” But increasingly, “birder” is becoming a catchall, thanks to a growing awareness that some hobbyists identify birds not by watching, but exclusively by listening.Ī microphone is situated underneath a bush outside of Mr. Courchesne said, birding clubs and conservation organizations are thinking more about accessibility, and this is changing the way they talk about birding and think about it.įor one thing, the terminology is evolving. Sarah Courchesne, a Massachusetts Audubon program ornithologist in Newburyport, attributes the increased interest in birding partly to the fact that it’s a way for people of all abilities to tap into nature - whether by eye, by ear or both.Īs the birding community grows larger and more diverse, Dr. Birding got a significant boost with the pandemic: With so many people doing less, they tuned in to the sounds of nature more and with lockdowns came a reduction in noise pollution, which made the bird calls all the more pronounced.
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