Techno Birding

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Jun 15, 2001

As the hobby of backyard birdwatching has grown in popularity, lots of tools and toys have been developed and marketed to enhance the experience. You can buy all kinds of electronic gizmos and specialized birdbaths, solar fountains and misters, even electronic bird feeders rigged to shock any squirrel which dares try to raid the seed. Birders gobble up these techno-toys in ever increasing numbers.

I admit to owning a Wing Song monitor, and I love it. There's a battery-operated microphone which hangs in the tree where the majority of my feeders are, and an electric receiver which I keep inside. When it's too cold to have the windows open, I can turn on the microphone and receiver and I can hear the birds signing indoors. Although the Wing Song monitor is no longer being manufactured, a similar device is now being marketed by backyard bird shops and suppliers, including on-line from Duncraft (http://www.duncraft.com ). Aside from the purely aesthetic value of hearing birdsong inside the house, the monitor has been a very useful tool during Project FeederWatch counts. If I should step away from the window where I do my counting, and a new bird flies in, the monitor picks up the song or call from the new bird and broadcasts it inside, alerting me to pay attention. Similarly, if a wandering neighborhood cat visits my yard, the alarms raised by jays and squirrels in my yard and broadcast through the monitor will send me (and my squirt gun) racing outside to give chase to the cat before it has a chance to do any damage.

When I was researching this article, I spoke with a FeederWatcher in Pennsylvania who has a tiny video camera tucked into the tree near her feeders, hooked up to her computer. While she's indoors working on her computer, she can watch the birds at her feeder! Nestbox cams are becoming more and more popular. First utilized to monitor the nests of rare birds like Peregrine Falcons, nestbox cams are now available for your backyard. You can even buy kits containing both the nestbox and the camera.

Another techno-toy which has caught my eye is a portable birdsong identifier, also available from Duncraft. About the size of a Walkman (tm) cassette player, the device has individual cards with pictures of birds. You slide the card into the device, punch the button next to the bird you're interested in, and you hear the song. Yardbird cards come with the device, and there are ten other cards, such as birds of the seashore, birds of marshes and wetlands, birds of the forest, etc., which may be purchased separately. This would be a great tool for someone just beginning to learn to bird by ear.

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