A few years back, I was looking for a LeConte’s Sparrow that had been reported at Prairie Green in Kane County. I never did see the bird, but periodically would hear a long, downslurred, tinny call. Could I know this was a LeConte’s Sparrow, and not another species like Savannah Sparrow? As I researched this, I found almost zero information regarding the vocal behavior of our Ammodramus sparrows. So I decided to explore this behavior myself, and purchased a Sennheiser ME66 shotgun microphone and an adapter for my iPhone. Since then recording has become a passion and an obsession, and I strive to record every sound I hear in the field. Of course, you do not actually need to purchase an expensive recording set to do the same. You can still obtain surprisingly good recordings with your phone, especially with the right tools and technique.

When recording bird sounds, you want control over the gain and the quality. The built-in voice recorders on your phone encode audio as MP3 files, which results in a smaller file size but also lower quality. For the iPhone, Audio Memos Pro can be configured to record to WAV files, and gives control over both the sound quality and the gain level. For Android, Cornell has recommended an app like RecForge II, and Nathan Pieplow recommends SpectralPro Analyzer.

Once you have your phone configured to record properly, you may want to add an external microphone if you already have one. The team at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology tested several smaller external microphones, but found they do not make enough of a difference to make them useful. The exception to this is using a shotgun or parabolic microphone, which was quite effective as my initial setup. However, be aware that if you do so, you will likely need to disable voice activation on your phone, which can be difficult to do completely.

Beyond equipment, you can employ a number of techniques to improve the quality of your recordings. Sound quality is largely a function of distance. You can boost the recorded volume of the bird’s song or call by 6dB by halving the distance between the microphone and the bird (a significant improvement). So the first step to ensuring a good recording is getting as close to the bird as you can without disturbing it. Next, try to position your phone’s microphone so that unwanted noise from cars or other birds is minimized. Further, longer recordings are always more valuable than shorter ones, since birds often switch between different songs and calls. As a rule, I try to leave the recorder running until the bird stops vocalizing (unless, of course, the bird is agitated by my presence). Finally, to reduce fatigue, keep your arm down at your side. It may be tempting to extend your arm to get closer to the bird, but the added reach is too small to noticeably affect the recording.

After a recording session you have the option to leave your recording as is, or edit it lightly to reduce interference. Recordists vary in their opinions on editing. Some adamantly oppose all modifications, while others will lightly amplify or filter their recordings as needed. That said, there are not many places in Illinois where you can escape background noise, especially if you live in the northeast portion of the state. Between normal commuter traffic, airline traffic from two major airports, and the fact that more trains pass through Chicago than any other major US city, it is nearly impossible to obtain a recording free from heavy background noise. As such, I dampen the noise in the first kHz of most of my recordings, with the exception being recordings of low-pitched vocalizations like heron grunts. Such filtering is easy with free tools like Raven Lite or Audacity. There are several online guides available to help you use these filters.

With spring migration underway, there will be many opportunities for you to record both songs and calls. It is worth getting into the habit of regularly recording the sounds you hear now. So when that singing MacGillivray’s Warbler shows up at your local forest preserve, you won’t walk away realizing you could have recorded its song but in your excitement completely forgot to do so.

by Matt Wistrand

In 1996, W. Douglas Robinson published Southern Illinois Birds: An Annotated List and Site Guide, a resource that documented the birds of southern Illinois by surveying published literature and the field notes of active observers.

Challenged by his publisher to update his twenty year old book, Robinson took on the arduous task using the field notes of The Meadowlark: A Journal of Illinois Birds and data contributed to eBird. Once completed and faced with the prospect of having to pay $3000 of his own money to publish it, Robinson decided to forego printing and distribute the book as widely as possible via the Internet.

The result is Birds of Southern Illinois, an online resource summarizing knowledge of birds in the seventeen southernmost counties of Illinois and designed to be regularly updated. Site guides are missing from the updated version, but Robinson mentions that “all of that information is easily accessible on eBird via the Hotspot Explorer.” What remains are species accounts with comments on status and abundance, arrival and departure dates for migrants, preferred habitat, and records of note.

Check out this great resource and help the author keep this book current by adding your data to eBird. And, who knows? Maybe your records will make it into the next version.

Where have all the whip-poor-will’s gone? This is a common question I am confronted with. I think it is a good question and one that leads into a larger discussion question that asks “Are current bird monitoring programs capable of estimating population trends for nocturnal species”. While current standardized monitoring programs, such as Christmas Bird Count (CBC), Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), and Spring Bird Count (SBC), are exemplary monitoring programs, they take place primarily during daylight hours, so unfortunately they cannot reliably monitor population trends for cryptic, nocturnal birds. Anecdotally, we know some may be declining, and, because of this, many organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada have put together monitoring programs for nocturnal species that aim to generate statistically powerful data that can be used to generate population trends over a shorter period of time. If species are declining we can further investigate the causes and in turn try to make beneficial conservation management decisions.

In 2008 Illinois enlisted the guidance of ongoing nocturnal monitoring programs and piloted Monitoring of Owls and Nightjars in Illinois (MOON). MOON is a volunteer based program that occurs throughout the state of Illinois. MOON’s target species are breeding owls and nightjars. In Illinois we have four nocturnal owls that we monitor for; Barn Owl, Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl, and Eastern Screech-Owl. The Barn Owl is listed as threatened on the Illinois Endangered Species List. The Eastern Screech-Owl is found in low numbers according to BBS data, but population trends are absent. Barred Owl, which was once rare in the state, is now found throughout the state as is the Great Horned Owl. MOON also targets nightjars; Illinois has have three species: Eastern Whip-poor-will, Chuck-will’s-widow, and Common Nighthawk. Nightjars are aerial insectivores and aerial insectivores of North America are in decline and the reasons why are poorly understood. The Chuck-will’s-widow has recently been listed as threatened on the Illinois Endangered Species List. The state of the birds report listed Common Nighthawk as a species in steep decline. Audubon’s climate model projects the Eastern Whip-poor-will to lose 78% of its breeding range by 2080 and 55% of its non-breeding range. By establishing MOON census routes that are consistently monitored we seek to be able to not only track trends in abundance and distribution for these species but to also develop suitability models and best management practices for them. Volunteers are critical for this program to succeed.

Because these routes are run anywhere from dusk until dawn, as opposed to during daylight hours, it can be a challenge to recruit and retain volunteers. Unlike other monitoring programs, where you have to learn to identify a large number of birds species often by sight and sound, MOON volunteers only need to learn a small handful of calls. The calls of these birds are relatively simple to learn and fun to hear. Volunteers monitor routes located along suitable habitat for owls and nightjars 2 times from April to June when the moon is at least 50% illuminated. Routes are 9 miles long with 10 stops per route. MOON volunteers are also encouraged to record “other” species they hear during the listening period if they can identify the sounds. These additional data can give us insight into the life histories of other species.

Interested in becoming a part of the MOON team? We are always looking to recruit more volunteers, so if you would like to volunteer, please e-mail me. You can also visit our website.

by Tara Beveroth