Haha, good that you could figure it out! I have always had doubts about birds saying their names (though it must have been fun to try singing them all!) and bird song mnemonics - to my mind they are never remotely similar to the actual song?!?
I remember trying to learn birdsong via CDs and it was indeed overwhelming - I never got beyond the first 5-10 birds, which were not even ones I often encountered outdoors. I think using an app, walking around with a birder, or starting with just a handful of songs of the most common species works much better. I think my post next week will be about species ID, so I've been thinking about it a lot ;)
I’m excited to read about your bird identification thoughts—the mnemonics don’t really help when I hear a bird out in the wild, but I’m always convinced I’ll remember them when I listen to YouTube videos at home!
It will be insect ID including thoughts that generalise to other species - not about birds specifically, I am afraid! I wish I knew some magical tricks for birdsongs... What I seem to do lately is narrow down to a couple of species based on habitat, exclude the ones I would recognize, and then listen to all the remaining "candidates" on xeno-canto (great website!). It sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't!
Haha, good that you could figure it out! I have always had doubts about birds saying their names (though it must have been fun to try singing them all!) and bird song mnemonics - to my mind they are never remotely similar to the actual song?!?
I remember trying to learn birdsong via CDs and it was indeed overwhelming - I never got beyond the first 5-10 birds, which were not even ones I often encountered outdoors. I think using an app, walking around with a birder, or starting with just a handful of songs of the most common species works much better. I think my post next week will be about species ID, so I've been thinking about it a lot ;)
I’m excited to read about your bird identification thoughts—the mnemonics don’t really help when I hear a bird out in the wild, but I’m always convinced I’ll remember them when I listen to YouTube videos at home!
It will be insect ID including thoughts that generalise to other species - not about birds specifically, I am afraid! I wish I knew some magical tricks for birdsongs... What I seem to do lately is narrow down to a couple of species based on habitat, exclude the ones I would recognize, and then listen to all the remaining "candidates" on xeno-canto (great website!). It sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't!