Passive acoustic birding

 

Passive acoustic birding (PAB) is a pretty fancy name for the practice of running sound recording equipment for the duration of your birding trip. I use my usual equipment for this, a Zoom H4N pro attached to a Rode NTG4 mic -  and wear it on my shoulder in a bespoke harness (see photo). Others use microphones clipped onto hats, or recorders in shirt pockets etc. There is no right or wrong way of doing this, and ultimately it will depend on what equipment you have or are willing to buy, and what you want to achieve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is one obvious advantage of PAB – the documentation of every single song and call that occurs within ‘audible range’ of you while you are birding. You will be surprised what ‘audible range’ is. I very seldom hear calls that are not picked up by my equipment, and in fact I often find when reviewing the calls of flyovers that birds I thought only called twice actually called three or four times! The alternative, to carry the equipment and to turn it on whenever you want to record something will lead to missed opportunities, especially with ‘one-off’ callers and flyovers.

 

Having these sounds documented means that you can refer to the recordings and sonograms to help you cement an identification, both in your own mind, and if you’re lucky enough to find something rare, in the minds of the relevant committee. This level of recording can probably be achieved with most of the types of set up listed above (after some experimentation to eliminate wind noise and the rustling of clothes, which close up can be very loud!) – but I feel that running my type of set up (a recorder with a directional microphone) has a few advantages. These are listed below:

 

• A directional mic (pointing upwards) reduces the sound of footsteps and clothing and gives you the best shot at capturing birds calling as they fly overhead, however

• The mic will continue to pick up calls of birds flushed from at your feet, in spite of not being ideally positioned to do that.

• If you encounter a stationary bird that you would like to record, it’s simple to take the mic from its position and get higher quality recordings without having to get too close to the bird.

• Anything singing or calling in the tree canopy can give excellent results just by standing under the tree.

• Leaning or bending this way or that can help you get the best out of the ‘directionality’ of the mic without having to take it out of its position.

• In general, the recording quality with good equipment (particularly a good mic) will be better than that achieved using the internal mics of the recorder (or a low quality external mic)

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Here's a selection of calls recorded while wearing the mic on my shoulder. Not the best recordings in the world, but good enough...

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Tree sparrow

Siskin

Red-throated pipit

Yellow wagtail

Tree pipit

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And they'ed certainly be good enough to nail a biggie. Imagine that you were walking along your favourite headland in mid October and you flush this ahead of you. You might not get enough on the plumage to nail it, but the call would have it in the bag immediately.

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Blyth's pipit

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